Report 


Commission 


on 


ountry  Life 


V 


This  book  is  DUE 


cojp-4 


REPORT  OF  THE 
COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 


REPORT 

OF  THE   COMMISSION 
ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 


Published  March,  1911 
Reprinted   September  1911,  March  1917 


4  £  I  ' 

•  <U  a  rj> .  "^ 

EXPLANATION 

The  Report  of  the  Commission  on  Country 
Life  was  published  as  Senate  Document  No. 
705,  60th  Congress,  2d  Session,  for  the  use  of 
Congress.  It  has  not  been  available  for  popular 
distribution.  The  Spokane  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce has  reprinted  it,  for  use  in  the  country 
life  movement  in  the  Northwest. 

The  Report  is  now  placed  in  the  hands  of  a 
regular  book  publisher,  as  one  means  of  making 
an  accessible  record  of  the  findings  and  recom- 
mendations of  the  Commission.  If  profits  accrue 
to  the  Commission  from  the  sale  of  the  book, 
they  will  be  devoted  to  public  country  life  work. 

L.  H.  BAILEY, 
For  the  Commission. 

ITHACA,  N.  Y.,  September  20,  1910. 


INTRODUCTION 


INTRODUCTION 

SAGAMORE  HILL, 
OYSTER  BAY,  N.  Y. 
July  21st.,  1910. 

I  am  glad  that  the  report  of  the  Commission  on 
Country  Life  is  to  be  reprinted.  I  had  hoped 
that  Congress  would  make  an  appropriation  to 
give  the  Commission  official  status  and  furnish 
it  the  means  to  continue  its  admirable  work.  As 
this  was  not  done,  I  trust  that  so  far  as  possible 
the  work  will  be  continued  by  private  and  vol- 
untary aid.  The  Commissioners  have  served 
without  compensation  and  they  are  entitled  to 
the  heartiest  thanks  from  all  men  intelligently 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  their  country. 

The  Commission  was  appointed  because  the 
time  has  come  when  it  is  vital  to  the  welfare  of 
the  country  seriously  to  consider  the  problems 
of  farm  life.  So  far  the  farmer  has  not  received 
the  attention  that  the  city  worker  has  received 
and  has  not  been  able  to  express  himself  as  the 
city  worker  has  done.  The  problems  of  farm  life 
have  received  very  little  consideration  and  the 
result  has  been  bad  for  those  who  dwell  in  the 
open  country,  and  therefore  bad  for  the  whole 


10  INTRODUCTION 

nation.  We  were  founded  as  a  nation  of  farmers, 
and  in  spite  of  the  great  growth  of  our  industrial 
life  it  still  remains  true  that  our  whole  system 
rests  upon  the  farm,  that  the  welfare  of  the 
whole  community  depends  upon  the  welfare  of 
the  farmer.  The  strengthening  of  country  life  is 
the  strengthening  of  the  whole  nation. 

If  country  life  is  to  become  all  that  it  should 
be,  if  the  career  of  a  farmer  is  to  rank  with  any 
other  career  in  the  country  as  a  dignified  and 
desirable  way  of  earning  a  living,  the  farmer 
must  take  advantage  of  all  that  agricultural 
knowledge  has  to  offer,  and  also  of  all  that  has 
raised  the  standard  of  living  and  of  intelligence 
in  other  callings.  We  who  are  interested  in  this 
movement  desire  to  take  counsel  with  the  farmer, 
as  his  fellow  citizens,  so  as  to  see  whether  the 
nation  cannot  aid  in  this  matter;  for  the  city 
dweller  in  the  long  run  has  only  less  concern 
than  the  country  dweller  in  how  the  country 
dweller  fares.  I  am  well  aware  that  the  working 
farmers  themselves  will  in  the  last  resort  have  to 
solve  this  problem  for  themselves;  but  as  it  also 
affects  in  only  less  degree  all  the  rest  of  us,  it 
is  not  merely  our  duty,  but  in  our  interest,  to 
see  if  we  can  render  any  help  towards  making  the 
solution  satisfactory. 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 


INTRODUCTORY  SUMMARY 
OF  THE  REPORT 


REPORT  OF  THE 
COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

(Introductory  Summary  of  Report,  pages  17  to  31.)1 
(The  full  Report  of  the  Commission,  pages  33  to  150.) 

WASHINGTON,  January  23,  1909. 
To  the  President: 

The  Commission  on   Country   Life  herewith 
presents  its  report,  covering  the  following  topics: 

INTRODUCTORY  REVIEW  OR  SUMMARY.     [Pages 
17  to  31.] 

FULL  REPORT  OP  THE   COMMISSION.     [Pages 
33  to  150.] 

I.    GENERAL  STATEMENT. 

The  purpose  of  the  Commission.   [Page 

40.] 
Methods  pursued  by  the  Commission. 

[Page  49.] 

(Circulars,    Hearings,    School-house 
meetings.) 

t 1  The  Introductory  Summary  or  Review,  with  the  President's 
Message,  went  to  the  press,  and  it  is  from  this  brief  synopsis 
that  the  popular  knowledge  of  the  Commission's  conclusions 
is  derived.] 


14       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

II.    THE  MAIN    SPECIAL    DEFICIENCIES    IN 
COUNTRY  LIFE.    [Page  59.] 

1.  Disregard  of  the  inherent  rights  of 

land-workers.     [Page  59.] 

(a)  Speculative    holding     of    lands. 

(b)  Monopolistic  control  of  streams. 

(c)  Wastage  and  control  of  forests. 

(d)  Restraint  of  trade. 

(e)  Remedies  for  the  disregard  of  the 

inherent  rights    of  the  farmer. 

2.  Highways.     [Page  82.] 

3.  Soil  depletion  and  its  effects.     [Page 

83.) 

4.  Agricultural  labor.     [Page  91.] 

(a)  Statement  of  the  general  problem. 

(b)  The   question   of  intemperance. 

(c)  Developing    the    local    attach- 

ments  of    the    farm    laborer. 

5.  Health  in  the  open  country.     [Page 

100.] 

6.  Woman's  work  on  the  farm.      [Page 

103.] 

III.    THE  GENERAL  CORRECTIVE  FORCES  THAT 
SHOULD  BE  SET  IN  MOTION.      [Page 
107.] 

7.  Need  of  agricultural  or  country  life 

surveys.     [Page  118.] 


OUTLINE  15 

8.  Need    of    a    redirected    education. 

[Page  -121.1 

9.  Necessity     of     working     together. 

[Page  128.] 

10.  The  country  church.     [Page  137.] 

11.  Personal  ideals  and  local  leadership. 

[Page  144.] 


INTRODUCTORY  REVIEW 
OR  SUMMARY 

The  Commission  finds  that  agriculture  in  the 
United  States,  taken  altogether,  is  prosperous 
commercially,  when  measured  by  the  conditions 
that  have  obtained  in  previous  years,  although 
there  are  some  regions  in  which  this  is  only 
partially  true.  The  country  people  are  producing 
vast  quantities  of  supplies  for  food,  shelter, 
clothing,  and  for  use  in  the  arts.  The  country 
homes  are  improving  in  comfort,  attractiveness 
and  healthfulness.  Not  only  in  the  material 
wealth  that  they  produce,  but  in  the  supply  of 
independent  and  strong  citizenship,  the  agri- 
cultural people  constitute  the  very  foundation 
of  our  national  efficiency.  As  agriculture  is  the 
immediate  basis  of  country  life,  so  it  follows  that 
the  general  affairs  of  the  open  country,  speaking 
broadly,  are  in  a  condition  of  improvement. 

Many  institutions,  organizations,  and  move- 
ments are  actively  contributing  to  the  increasing 
welfare  of  the  open  country.  The  most  impor- 
tant of  these  are  the  United  States  Department 


18       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

of  Agriculture,  the  colleges  of  agriculture  and 
the  experiment  stations  in  the  states,  and  the 
national  farmers'  organizations.  These  institu- 
tions and  organizations  are  now  properly  assum- 
ing leadership  in  country  life  affairs,  and  con- 
sequently in  many  of  the  public  questions  of 
national  bearing.  With  these  agencies  must  be 
mentioned  state  departments  of  agriculture, 
agricultural  societies  and  organizations  of  very 
many  kinds,  teachers  in  schools,  workers  in 
church  and  other  religious  associations,  travelling 
libraries,  and  many  other  groups,  all  working  with 
commendable  zeal  to  further  the  welfare  of  the 
people  of  the  open  country. 

THE  MOST  PROMINENT  DEFICIENCIES. 

Yet  it  is  true,  notwithstanding  all  this  progress 
as  measured  by  historical  standards,  that  agri- 
culture is  not  commercially  as  profitable  as  it  is 
entitled  to  be  for  the  labor  and  energy  that  the 
farmer  expends  and  the  risks  that  he  assumes,  and 
that  the  social  conditions  in  the  open  country 
are  far  short  of  their  possibilities.  We  must 
measure  our  agricultural  efficiency  by  its  pos- 
sibilities rather  than  by  comparison  with  previ- 
ous conditions.  The  farmer  is  almost  necessarily 
handicapped  in  the  development  of  his  business 
because  his  capital  is  small,  and  the  volume  of 


DEFICIENCIES  19 

his  transactions  limited;  and  he  usually  stands 
practically  alone  against  organized  interests.  In 
the  general  readjustment  of  modern  life  due  to 
the  great  changes  in  manufactures  and  com- 
merce, inequalities  and  discriminations  have 
arisen,  and  naturally  the  separate  man  suffers 
most.  The  unattached  man  has  problems  that 
government  should  understand. 

The  reasons  for  the  lack  of  a  highly  organized 
rural  society  are  very  many,  as  the  full  Report 
explains.  The  leading  specific  causes  are : 

A  lack  of  knowledge  on  the  part  of  farmers 
of  the  exact  agricultural  conditions  and 
possibilities  of  their  regions; 

Lack  of  good  training  for  country  life  in 
the  schools; 

The  disadvantage  or  handicap  of  the 
farmer  as  against  the  established  business 
systems  and  interests,  preventing  him  from 
securing  adequate  returns  for  his  products, 
depriving  him  of  the  benefits  that  would 
result  from  unmonopolized  rivers  and  the 
conservation  of  forests,  and  depriving  the 
community,  in  many  cases,  of  the  good  that 
would  come  from  the  use  of  great  tracts 
of  agricultural  land  that  are  now  held  for 
speculative  purposes; 

Lack  of  good  highway  facilities; 


20       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

The  widespread  continuing  depletion  of 
soils,  with  the  injurious  effect  on  rural  life; 

A  general  need  of  new  and  active  leader- 
ship. 

Other  causes  contributing  to  the  general  result 
are :  Lack  of  any  adequate  system  of  agricultural 
credit,  whereby  the  farmer  may  readily  secure 
loans  on  fair  terms;  the  shortage  of  labor,  a 
condition  that  is  often  complicated  by  intem- 
perance among  workmen ;  lack  of  institutions  and 
incentives  that  tie  the  laboring  man  to  the  soil; 
the  burdens  and  the  narrow  life  of  farm  women; 
lack  of  adequate  supervision  of  public  health. 

THE  NATURE  OP  THE  REMEDIES. 

Some  of  the  remedies  lie  with  the  national 
Government,  some  of  them  with  the  States  and 
communities  in  their  corporate  capacities,  some 
with  voluntary  organizations,  and  some  with 
individuals  acting  alone.  From  the  great  number 
of  suggestions  that  have  been  made,  covering 
every  phase  of  country  life,  the  Commission  now 
enumerates  those  that  seem  to  be  most  funda- 
mental or  most  needed  at  the  present  time. 

Congress  can  remove  some  of  the  handicaps  of 
the  farmer,  and  it  can  also  set  some  kinds  of  work 
in  motion,  such  as: 

The  encouragement  of  a  system  of  thor- 


NEEDS  21 

oughgoing  surveys  of  all  agricultural  regions 
in  order  to  take  stock  and  to  collect  local 
fact,  with  the  idea  of  providing  a  basis  on 
which  to  develop  a  scientifically  and  econom- 
ically sound  country  life; 

The  encouragement  of  a  system  of  ex- 
tension work  in  rural  communities  through 
all  the  land-grant  colleges  with  the  people 
at  their  homes  and  on  their  farms; 

A  thoroughgoing  investigation  by  experts 
of  the  middleman  system  of  handling  farm 
products,  coupled  with  a  general  inquiry 
into  the  farmer's  disadvantages  in  respect  to 
taxation,  transportation  rates,  cooperative 
organizations  and  credit,  and  the  general 
business  system; 

An  inquiry  into  the  control  and  use  of  the 
streams  of  the  United  States  with  the  object 
of  protecting  the  people  in  their  ownership 
and  of  saving  to  agricultural  uses  such 
benefits  as  should  be  reserved  for  these 
purposes; 

The  establishing  of  a  highway  engineering 
service,  or  equivalent  organization,  to  be  at 
the  call  of  the  states  in  working  out  effective 
and  economical  highway  systems; 

The  establishing  of  a  system  of  parcels 
posts  and  postal  savings  banks; 

And  providing  some  means  or  agency  for 


22       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

the  guidance  of  public  opinion  toward  the 
development  of  a  real  rural  society  that  shall 
rest  directly  on  the  land. 

Other  remedies  recommended  for  considera- 
tion by  Congress  are: 

The  enlargement  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education,  to  enable  it  to  stimu- 
late and  coordinate  the  educational  work  of 
the  nation; 

Careful  attention  to  the  farmers'  interests 
in  legislation  on  the  tariff,  on  regulation  of 
railroads,  control  of  regulation  of  corpora- 
tions and  of  speculation,  legislation  in  re- 
spect to  rivers,  forests  and  the  utilization  of 
swamp  lands; 

Increasing  the  powers  of  the  federal 
government  in  respect  to  the  supervision 
and  control  of  the  public  health; 

Providing  such  regulations  as  will  enable 
the  states  that  do  not  permit  the  sale  of 
liquors  to  protect  themselves  from  traffic 
from  adjoining  states. 

In  setting  all  these  forces  in  motion,  the  co- 
operation of  the  States  will  be  necessary;  and  in 
many  cases  definite  state  laws  may  greatly  aid 
the  work. 

Remedies  of  a  more  general  nature  are:  A 


NEEDS  23 

broad  campaign  of  publicity,  that  must  be  under- 
taken until  all  the  people  are  informed  on  the 
whole  subject  of  rural  life,  and  until  there  is  an 
awakened  appreciation  of  the  necessity  of  giving 
this  phase  of  our  national  development  as  much 
attention  as  has  been  given  to  other  phases  or 
interests;  a  quickened  sense  of  responsibility  in 
all  country  people,  to  the  community  and  to  the 
state  in  the  conserving  of  soil  fertility,  and  in  the 
necessity  for  diversifying  farming  in  order  to 
conserve  this  fertility  and  to  develop  a  better 
rural  society,  and  also  in  the  better  safeguarding 
of  the  strength  and  happiness  of  the  farm  women  ; 
a  more  widespread  conviction  of  the  necessity 
for  organization,  not  only  for  economic  but  for 
social  purposes,  this  organization  to  be  more  or 
less  cooperative,  so  that  all  the  people  may  share 
equally  in  the  benefits  and  have  voice  in  the 
essential  affairs  of  the  community;  a  realization 
on  the  part  of  the  farmer  that  he  has  a  distinct 
natural  responsibility  toward  the  laborer  in 
providing  him  with  good  living  facilities  and  in 
helping  him  in  every  way  to  be  a  man  among 
men;  and  a  realization  on  the  part  of  all  the 
people  of  the  obligation  to  protect  and  develop 
the  natural  scenery  and  attractiveness  of  the 
open  country. 

Certain  remedies  lie  with  voluntary  organiza- 
tions and  institutions.    All  organized  forces  both 


24       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

in  town  and  country  should  understand  that 
there  are  country  phases  as  well  as  city  phases  of 
our  civilization,  and  that  one  phase  needs  help  as 
much  as  the  other.  All  these  agencies  should 
recognize  their  responsibility  to  society.  Many 
existing  organizations  and  institutions  might 
become  practically  cooperative  or  mutual  in 
spirit,  as,  for  example,  all  agricultural  societies, 
libraries,  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 
and  churches.  All  the  organizations  standing  for 
rural  progress  should  be  federated,  in  states  and 
nation. 

THE  UNDERLYING  PROBLEM  OF  COUNTRY  LIFE. 

The  mere  enumeration  of  the  foregoing  de- 
ficiencies and  remedies  indicates  that  the  problem 
of  country  life  is  one  of  reconstruction,  and  that 
temporary  measures  and  defense  work  alone  will 
not  solve  it.  The  underlying  problem  is  to 
develop  and  maintain  on  our  farms  a  civilization 
in  full  harmony  with  the  best  American  ideals. 
To  build  up  and  retain  this  civilization  means, 
first  of  all,  that  the  business  of  agriculture  must 
be  made  to  yield  a  reasonable  return  to  those  who 
follow  it  intelligently;  and  life  on  the  farm  must 
be  made  permanently  satisfying  to  intelligent, 
progressive  people.  The  work  before  us,  there- 
fore, is  nothing  more  or  less  than  the  gradual 
rebuilding  of  a  new  agriculture  and  new  rural 


UNDERLYING  PROBLEMS  25 

life.  We  regard  it  as  absolutely  essential  that 
this  great  general  work  should  be  understood 
by  all  the  people.  Separate  difficulties,  important 
as  they  are,  must  be  studied  and  worked  out  in 
the  light  of  the  greater  fundamental  problem. 

The  Commission  has  pointed  out  a  number  of 
remedies  that  are  extremely  important.  But 
running  through  all  of  these  remedies  are  several 
great  forces,  or  principles,  which  must  be  utilized 
in  the  endeavor  to  solve  the  problems  of  country 
life.  All  the  people  should  recognize  what  these 
fundamental  forces  and  agencies  are. 

Knowledge. — To  improve  any  situation,  the 
underlying  facts  must  be  understood.  The  farmer 
must  have  exact  knowledge  of  his  business  and 
of  the  particular  conditions  under  which  he 
works.  The  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture and  the  experiment  stations  and  colleges 
are  rapidly  acquiring  and  distributing  this  knowl- 
edge; but  the  farmer  may  not  be  able  to  apply 
it  to  the  best  advantage  because  of  lack  of 
knowledge  of  his  own  soils,  climate,  animal  and 
plant  diseases,  markets,  and  other  local  facts. 
The  farmer  is  entitled  to  know  what  are  the 
advantages  and  disadvantages  of  his  conditions 
and  environment.  A  thoroughgoing  system  of 
surveys  in  detail  of  the  exact  conditions  under- 
lying farming  in  every  locality  is  now  an  indis- 


26       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

pensable  need  to  complete  and  apply  the  work  of 
the  great  agricultural  institutions.  As  an  occupa- 
tion, agriculture  is  a  means  of  developing  our 
internal  resources;  we  cannot  develop  these 
resources  until  we  know  exactly  what  they  are. 

Education. — There  must  be  not  only  a  fuller 
scheme  of  public  education,  but  a  new  kind  of 
education  adapted  to  the  real  needs  of  the  farm- 
ing people.  The  country  schools  are  to  be  so 
redirected  that  they  shall  educate  their  pupils  in 
terms  of  the  daily  life.  Opportunities  for  train- 
ing toward  agricultural  callings  are  to  be  multi- 
plied and  made  broadly  effective.  Every  person 
on  the  land,  old  or  young,  in  school  or  out  of 
school,  educated  or  illiterate,  must  have  a  chance 
to  receive  the  information  necessary  for  a  success- 
ful business,  and  for  a  healthful,  comfortable  re- 
sourceful life,  both  in  home  and  neighborhood. 
This  means  redoubled  efforts  for  better  country 
schools,  and  a  vastly  increased  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  country  boys  and  girls  on  the  part  of 
those  who  pay  the  school  taxes.  Education  by 
means  of  agriculture  is  to  be  a  part  of  our  regular 
public  school  work.  Special  agricultural  schools 
are  to  be  organized.  There  is  to  be  a  well- 
developed  plan  of  extension  teaching  conducted 
by  the  agricultural  colleges,  by  means  of  the 
printed  page,  face-to-face  talks,  and  demonstra- 


UNDERLYING  PROBLEMS  27 

tion  or  object  lessons,  designed  to  reach  every 
farmer  and  his  family,  at  or  near  their  homes, 
with  knowledge  and  stimulus  in  every'  depart- 
ment of  country  life. 

Organization. — There  must  be  a  vast  enlarge- 
ment of  voluntary  organized  effort  among  farmers 
themselves.  It  is  indispensable  that  farmers  shall 
work  together  for  their  common  interests  and  for 
the  national  welfare.  If  they  do  not  do  this,  no 
governmental  activity,  no  legislation,  not  even 
better  schools,  will  greatly  avail.  Much  has  been 
done.  There  is  a  multitude  of  clubs,  and  associa- 
tion for  social,  educational  and  business  purposes; 
and  great  national  organizations  are  effective. 
But  the  farmers  are  nevertheless  relatively  unor- 
ganized. We  have  only  begun  to  develop  busi- 
ness cooperation  in  America.  Farmers  do  not 
influence  legislation  as  they  should.  They  need 
a  more  fully  organized  social  and  recreative  life. 

Spiritual  forces. — The  forces  and  institutions 
that  make  for  morality  and  spiritual  ideals  among 
rural  people  must  be  energized.  We  miss  the 
heart  of  the  problem  if  we  neglect  to  foster  per- 
sonal character  and  neighborhood  righteousness. 
The  best  way  to  preserve  ideals  for  private  con- 
duct and  public  life  is  to  build  up  the  institutions 
of  religion.  The  church  has  great  power  of  lead- 
ership. The  whole  people  should  understand  that 


28       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

it  is  vitally  important  to  stand  behind  the  rural 
church  and  to  help  it  to  become  a  great  power 
in  developing  concrete  country  life  ideals.  It  is 
especially  important  that  the  country  church 
recognize  that  it  has  a  social  responsibility  to 
the  entire  community  as  well  as  a  religious 
responsibility  to  its  own  group  of  people. 

RECOMMENDATIONS  OF  THE  COMMISSION 

The  Commission  recommends  all  the  correc- 
tives that  have  been  mentioned  under  the  head 
of  "  The  Nature  of  the  Remedies."  It  does  not 
wish  to  discriminate  between  important  measures 
of  relief  for  existing  conditions.  It  has  purposely 
avoided  endorsing  any  particular  bill  now  before 
Congress,  no  matter  what  its  value  or  object. 

There  are,  however,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Commission,  two  or  three  great  movements  of 
the  utmost  consequence  that  should  be  set  under 
way  at  the  earliest  possible  time  because  they 
are  fundamental  to  the  whole  problem  of  ultimate 
permanent  reconstruction;  these  call  for  special 
explanation. 

1.  Taking  stock  of  country  life. — There  should 
be  organized,  as  explained  in  the  main  Report, 
under  government  leadership,  a  comprehensive 
plan  for  an  exhaustive  study  or  survey  of  all  the 
conditions  that  surround  the  business  of  farming 


RECOMMENDATIONS.  29 

and  the  people  who  live  in  the  country,  in  order 
to  take  stock  of  our  resources  and  to  supply 
the  farmer  with  local  knowledge.  Federal  and 
state  governments,  agricultural  colleges  and  other 
educational  agencies,  organizations  of  various 
types,  and  individual  students  of  the  problem, 
should  be  brought  into  cooperation  for  this  great 
work  of  investigating  with  minute  care  all  agri- 
cultural and  country  life  conditions. 

2.  Nationalized  extension  work. — Each  state 
college  of  agriculture  should  be  empowered  to 
organize  as  soon  as  practicable,  a  complete 
department  of  college  extension,  so  managed  as 
to  reach  every  person  on  the  land  in  its  state, 
with  both  information  and  inspiration.  The  work 
should  include  such  forms  of  extension  teach- 
ing as  lectures,  bulletins,  reading-courses,  cor- 
respondence courses,  demonstration  and  other 
means  of  reaching  the  people  at  home  and  on 
their  farms.  It  should  be  designed  to  forward 
not  only  the  business  of  agriculture,  but  sanita- 
tion, education,  home-making,  and  all  interests 
of  country  life. 

8.  A  campaign  for  rural  progress. — We  urge 
the  holding  of  local,  state  and  even  national 
conferences  on  rural  progress,  designed  to  unite 
the  interests  of  education,  organization  and 
religion  into  one  forward  movement  for  the 


rebuilding  of  country  life.  Rural  teachers, 
librarians,  clergymen,  editors,  physicians  and 
others  may  well  unite  with  farmers  in  studying 
and  discussing  the  rural  question  in  all  its  aspects. 
We  must  in  some  way  unite  all  institutions,  all 
organizations,  all  individuals,  having  any  in- 
terest in  country  life  into  one  great  campaign  for 
rural  progress. 

THE  CALL  FOR  LEADERSHIP. 

We  must  picture  to  ourselves  a  new  rural 
social  structure,  developed  from  the  strong 
resident  forces  of  the  open  country;  and  then  we 
must  set  at  work  all  the  agencies  that  will  tend 
to  bring  this  about.  The  entire  people  need  to  be 
roused  to  this  avenue  of  usefulness.  Most  of  the 
new  leaders  must  be  farmers  who  can  find  not 
only  a  satisfying  business  career  on  the  farm,  but 
who  will  throw  themselves  into  the  service  of 
upbuilding  the  community.  A  new  race  of 
teachers  is  also  to  appear  in  the  country.  A  new 
rural  clergy  is  to  be  trained.  These  leaders  will 
see  the  great  underlying  problem  of  country  life, 
and  together  they  will  work,  each  in  his  own  field, 
for  the  one  goal  of  a  new  and  permanent  rural 
civilization.  Upon  the  development  of  this 
distinctively  rural  civilization  rests  ultimately 
our  ability,  by  methods  of  farming  requiring  the 
highest  intelligence,  to  continue  to  feed  and 


LEADERSHIP  31 

clothe  the  hungry  nations ;  to  supply  the  city  and 
metropolis  with  fresh  blood,  clean  bodies  and 
clear  brains  that  can  endure  the  strain  of  modern 
urban  life;  and  to  preserve  a  race  of  men  in  the 
open  country  that,  in  the  future  as  in  the  past, 
will  be  the  stay  and  strength  of  the  nation  in 
time  of  war,  and  its  guiding  and  controlling 
spirit  in  time  of  peace. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  many  young  men  and 
women,  fresh  from  our  schools  and  institutions 
of  learning,  and  quick  with  ambition  and  trained 
intelligence,  will  feel  a  new  and  strong  call  to 
service. 


FULL  REPORT  OF  THE   COMMISSION 


I 

GENERAL  STATEMENT 

Broadly  speaking,  agriculture  in  the  United 
States  is  prosperous  and  the  conditions  in  many 
of  the  great  farming  regions  are  improving. 
The  success  of  the  owners  and  cultivators  of  good 
land,  in  the  prosperous  regions,  has  been  due 
partly  to  improved  methods,  largely  to  good 
prices  for  products,  and  also  to  the  general  ad- 
vance in  the  price  of  farm  lands  in  these  regions. 
Notwithstanding  the  general  advance  in  rentals 
and  the  higher  prices  of  labor,  tenants  also  have 
enjoyed  a  good  degree  of  prosperity,  due  to  fair 
crops,  and  an  advance  in  the  price  of  farm  prod- 
ucts approximately  corresponding  to  the  advance 
in  the  price  of  land.  Farm  labor  has  been  fully 
employed  and  at  increased  wages;  and  many 
farm  hands  have  become  tenants  and  many  ten- 
ants have  become  landowners. 

There  is  marked  improvement,  in  many  of  the 
agricultural  regions,  in  the  character  of  the  farm 


36       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

home  and  its  surroundings.  There  is  increasing 
appreciation  on  the  part  of  great  numbers  of 
country  people  of  the  advantage  of  sanitary 
water  supplies  and  plumbing,  of  better  con- 
struction in  barns  and  all  farm  buildings,  of  good 
reading  matter,  of  tasteful  gardens  and  lawns,  and 
the  necessity  of  good  education. 

Many  institutions  are  also  serving  the  agri- 
cultural needs  of  the  open  country  with  great 
effectiveness,  as  the  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture,  the  land-grant  colleges  and  ex- 
periment stations,  and  the  many  kinds  of  exten- 
sion work  that  directly  or  indirectly  emanate 
from  them.  The  help  that  these  institutions 
render  to  the  country  life  interests  is  everywhere 
recognized.  State  departments  of  agriculture, 
national,  state,  and  local  organizations,  many 
schools  of  secondary  grade,  churches,  libraries, 
and  many  other  agencies,  are  also  contributing 
actively  to  the  betterment  of  agricultural  con- 
ditions. 

There  has  never  been  a  time  when  the  Ameri- 
can farmer  was  as  well  off  as  he  is  today,  when 
we  consider  not  only  his  earning  power,  but  the 
comforts  and  advantages  he  may  secure.  Yet 


GENERAL  CONDITION  37 

the  real  efficiency  in  farm  life,  and  in  country  life 
as  a  whole,  is  not  to  be  measured  by  historical 
standards,  but  in  terms  of  its  possibilities. 
Considered  from  this  point  of  view,  there  are  very 
marked  deficiencies.  There  has  been  a  complete 
and  fundamental  change  in  our  whole  economic 
system  within  the  past  century.  This  has  re- 
sulted in  profound  social  changes,  and  the  re- 
direction of  our  point  of  view  on  life.  In  some 
occupations,  the  readjustment  to  the  new  con- 
ditions has  been  rapid  and  complete;  in  others 
it  has  come  with  difficulty.  In  all  the  great 
series  of  farm  occupations  the  readjustment  has 
been  the  most  tardy,  because  the  whole  structure 
of  a  traditional  and  fundamental  system  has  been 
involved.  It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  de- 
velopment is  still  arrested  in  certain  respects, 
that  marked  inequalities  have  arisen,  or  that  posi- 
tive injustice  may  prevail  even  to  a  very  marked 
and  widespread  extent.  All  these  difficulties  are 
the  results  of  the  unequal  development  of  our 
contemporary  civilization.  All  this  may  come 
about  without  any  intention  on  the  part  of  any 
one  that  it  should  be  so.  The  problems  are  never- 
theless just  as  real,  and  they  must  be  studied  and 
remedies  must  be  found. 


38       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

These  deficiencies  are  recognized  by  the  people. 
We  have  found,  not  only  by  the  testimony  of  the 
farmers  themselves,  but  of  all  persons  in  touch 
with  farm  life,  more  or  less  serious  agricultural 
unrest  in  every  part  of  the  United  States,  even 
in  the  most  prosperous  regions.  There  is  a  wide- 
spread tendency  for  farmers  to  move  to  town. 
It  is  not  advisable,  of  course,  that  all  country 
persons  remain  in  the  country;  but  this  general 
desire  to  move  is  evidence  that  the  open  country 
is  not  satisfying  as  a  permanent  abode.  This 
tendency  is  not  peculiar  to  any  region.  In  diffi- 
cult farming  regions,  and  where  the  competition 
with  other  farming  sections  is  most  severe,  the 
young  people  may  go  to  town  to  better  their  con- 
dition. In  the  best  regions,  the  older  people  re- 
tire to  town  because  it  is  socially  more  attractive, 
and  they  see  a  prospect  of  living  in  comparative 
ease  and  comfort  on  the  rental  of  their  lands. 
Nearly  everywhere  there  is  a  townward  move- 
ment for  the  purpose  of  securing  school  advan- 
tages for  the  children.  All  this  tends  to  sterilize 
the  open  country  and  to  lower  its  social  status. 
Often  the  farm  is  let  to  tenants.  The  farmer  is 
likely  to  lose  active  interest  in  life  when  he  re- 


GENERAL  CONDITION  39 

tires  to  town,  and  he  becomes  a  stationary  citi- 
zen, adding  a  social  problem  to  the  town.  He  is 
likely  to  find  his  expenses  increasing  and  is 
obliged  to  raise  rents  to  his  tenant,  thereby  mak- 
ing it  more  difficult  for  the  man  who  works  on  the 
land.  On  his  death  his  property  enriches  the 
town  rather  than  the  country.  The  withdrawal 
of  the  children  from  the  farms  detracts  from  the 
interest  and  efficiency  of  the  country  school  and 
adds  to  the  interest  of  the  town  school.  Thus 
the  country  is  drained  of  the  energy  of  youth  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  experience  and  accumula- 
tion of  age  on  the  other,  and  three  problems  more 
or  less  grave  are  created :  a  problem  for  the  town, 
a  problem  for  the  public  school,  and  also  a  prob- 
lem of  tenancy  in  the  open  country. 

The  farming  interest  is  not  as  a  whole  re- 
ceiving the  full  rewards  to  which  it  is  entitled, 
nor  has  country  life  attained  to  anywhere  near 
its  possibilities  of  attractiveness  and  comfort. 
The  farmer  is  necessarily  handicapped  in  the  de- 
velopment of  social  life  and  in  the  conduct  of  his 
business  because  of  his  separateness,  the  small 
volume  of  his  output,  and  the  lack  of  capital. 
He  often  begins  with  practically  no  capital,  and 


40       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

expects  to  develop  his  capital  and  relationships 
out  of  the  annual  business  itself;  and  even  when 
he  has  capital  with  which  to  set  up  a  business  and 
operate  it,  the  amount  is  small  when  compared 
with  that  required  in  other  enterprises.  He  is  not 
only  handicapped  in  his  farming,  but  is  disadvan- 
taged  when  he  deals  with  other  business  interests 
and  with  other  social  groups.  It  is  peculiarly 
necessary,  therefore,  that  government  should 
give  him  adequate  consideration  and  protection. 
There  are  difficulties  of  the  separate  man,  living 
quietly  on  his  land,  that  government  should 
understand. 

THE  PURPOSE  OP  THE  COMMISSION. 

The  Commission  is  requested  to  report  on  the 
means  that  are  "now  available  for  supplying  the 
deficiencies  which  exist"  in  the  country  life  of  the 
United  States,  and  "upon  the  best  methods  of 
organized  permanent  effort  in  investigation  and 
actual  work"  along  the  lines  of  betterment  of 
rural  conditions. 

The  President's  letter  appointing  the  Com- 
mission is  as  follows: 


APPOINTMENT  OF  COMMISSION        41 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE 
WASHINGTON 

OYSTER  BAY,  N.  Y., 
August  10,  1908. 
My  dear  Professor  Bailey: 

No  nation  has  ever  achieved  permanent  greatness 
unless  this  greatness  was  based  on  the  well-being  of 
the  great  farmer  class,  the  men  who  live  on  the  soil; 
for  it  is  upon  their  welfare,  material  and  moral,  that 
the  welfare  of  the  rest  of  the  nation  ultimately  rests. 
In  the  United  States,  disregarding  certain  sections  and 
taking  the  nation  as  a  whole,  I  believe  it  to  be  true 
that  the  farmers  in  general  are  better  off  today  than 
they  ever  were  before.  We  Americans -are  making 
great  progress  in  the  development  of  our  agricultural 
resources.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  the  social  and 
economic  institutions  of  the  open  country  are  not 
keeping  pace  with  the  development  of  the  nation  as 
a  whole.  The  farmer  is,  as  a  rule,  better  off  than  his 
forebears;  but  his  increase  in  well-being  has  not  kept 
pace  with  that  of  the  country  as  a  whole.  While  the 
condition  of  the  farmers  in  some  of  our  best  farming 
regions  leaves  little  to  be  desired,  we  are  far  from 
having  reached  so  high  a  level  in  all  parts  of  the 
country.  In  portions  of  the  South,  for  example, 
where  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  through  the 
farmers'  cooperative  demonstration  work  of  Doctor 
Knapp,  is  directly  instructing  more  than  thirty  thou- 
sand farmers  in  better  methods  of  farming,  there  is 
nevertheless  much  unnecessary  suffering  and  need- 
less loss  of  efficiency  on  the  farm.  A  physician,  who 


42       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

is  also  a  careful  student  of  farm  life  in  the  South, 
writing  to  me  recently  about  the  enormous  percentage 
of  preventable  deaths  of  children  due  to  the  unsani- 
tary condition  of  Southern  farms,  said: 

"Personally,  from  the  health  point  of  view,  I 
would  prefer  to  see  my  own  daughter,  nine  years 
old,  at  work  in  a  cotton  mill,  than  have  her  live 
as  tenant  on  the  average  Southern  tenant  one- 
horse  farm.  This  apparently  extreme  statement 
is  based  upon  actual  life  among  both  classes  of 
people." 

I  doubt  if  any  other  nation  can  bear  comparison 
with  our  own  in  the  amount  of  attention  given  by 
the  government,  both  federal  and  state,  to  agricul- 
tural matters.  But  practically  the  whole  of  this 
effort  has  hitherto  been  directed  toward  increasing 
the  production  of  crops.  Our  attention  has  been 
concentrated  almost  exclusively  on  getting  better 
farming.  In  the  beginning  this  was  unquestionably 
the  right  thing  to  do.  The  farmer  must  first  of  all 
grow  good  crops  in  order  to  support  himself  and  his 
family.  But  when  this  has  been  secured,  the  effort 
for  better  farming  should  cease  to  stand  alone,  and 
should  be  accompanied  by  the  effort  for  better  busi- 
ness and  better  living  on  the  farm.  It  is  at  least  as 
important  that  the  farmer  should  get  the  largest 
possible  return  in  money,  comfort,  and  social  advan- 
tages from  the  crops  he  grows,  as  that  he  should  get 
the  largest  possible  return  in  crops  from  the  land  he 
farms.  Agriculture  is  not  the  whole  of  country  life. 


APPOINTMENT  OF  COMMISSION        43 

The  great  rural  interests  are  human  interests,  and 
good  crops  are  of  little  value  to  the  farmer  unless 
they  open  the  door  to  a  good  kind  of  life  on  the  farm. 
This  problem  of  country  life  is  in  the  truest  sense 
a  national  problem.  In  an  address  delivered  at 
the  Semi-Centennial  of  the  Founding  of  Agricultural 
Colleges  in  the  United  States  a  year  ago  last  May, 
I  said: 

"There  is  but  one  person  whose  welfare  is  as 
vital  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole  country  as  is 
that  of  the  wageworker  who  does  manual  labor; 
and  that  is  the  tiller  of  the  soil — the  farmer.  If 
there  is  one  lesson  taught  by  history  it  is  that 
the  permanent  greatness  of  any  state  must  ulti- 
mately depend  more  upon  the  character  of  its 
country  population  than  upon  anything  else. 
No  growth  of  cities,  no  growth  of  wealth,  can 
make  up  for  loss  in  either  the  number  or  the 
character  of  the  farming  population. 


"The  farm  grows  the  raw  material  for  the  food 
and  clothing  of  all  our  citizens;  it  supports  di- 
rectly almost  half  of  them;  and  nearly  half  the 
children  of  the  Unites  States  are  born  and 
brought  up  on  the  farms.  How  can  the  life  of 
the  farm  family  be  made  less  solitary,  fuller  of 
opportunity,  freer  from  drudgery,  more  comfort- 
able, happier,  and  more  attractive?  Such  a 
result  is  most  earnestly  to  be  desired.  How 
can  life  on  the  farm  be  kept  on  the  highest  level, 


44       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

and  where  it  is  not  already  on  that  level,  be  so 
improved,  dignified  and  brightened  as  to  awaken 
and  keep  alive  the  pride  and  loyalty  of  the  farm- 
er's boys  and  girls,  of  the  farmer's  wife,  and  of 
the  farmer  himself?  How  can  a  compelling 
desire  to  live  on  the  farm  be  aroused  in  the  chil- 
dren that  are  born  on  the  farm?  All  these 
questions  are  of  vital  importance  not  only  to 
the  farmer,  but  to  the  whole  nation. 


"We  hope  ultimately  to  double  the  average 
yield  of  wheat  and  corn  per  acre;  it  will  be  a 
great  achievement;  but  it  is  even  more  important 
to  double  the  desirability,  comfort,  and  standing 
of  the  farmer's  life." 

It  is  especially  important  that  whatever  will  serve 
to  prepare  country  children  for  life  on  the  farm,  and 
whatever  will  brighten  home  life  in  the  country  and 
make  it  richer  and  more  attractive  for  the  mothers, 
wives  and  daughters  of  farmers  should  be  done 
promptly,  thoroughly  and  gladly.  There  is  no  more 
important  person,  measured  in  influence  upon  the 
life  of  the  nation,  than  the  farmer's  wife,  no  more  im- 
portant home  than  the  country  home,  and  it  is  of 
national  importance  to  do  the  best  we  can  for  both. 

The  farmers  have  hitherto  had  less  than  their  full 
share  of  public  attention  along  the  lines  of  business 
and  social  life.  There  is  too  much  belief  among  all 
our  people  that  the  prizes  of  life  lie  away  from  the 


APPOINTMENT  OF  COMMISSION        45 

farm.  I  am  therefore  anxious  to  bring  before  the 
people  of  the  United  States  the  question  of  securing 
better  business  and  better  living  on  the  farm,  whether 
by  cooperation  between  farmers  for  buying,  selling 
and  borrowing;  by  promoting  social  advantages  and 
opportunities  in  the  country;  or  by  any  other  legiti- 
mate means  that  will  help  to  make  country  life  more 
gainful,  more  attractive,  and  fuller  of  opportunities, 
pleasures  and  rewards  for  the  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren of  the  farms. 

I  shall  be  very  glad  indeed  if  you  will  consent  to 
serve  upon  a  Commission  on  Country  Life,  upon 
which  I  am  asking  the  following  gentlemen  to  act: 

Professor  L.  H.  Bailey,  New  York  State  College  of 

Agriculture,  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  Chairman. 
Mr.  Henry  Wallace,  Wallaces'  Farmer,  Des  Moines, 

Iowa. 
President  Kenyon  L.   Butterfield,   Massachusetts 

Agricultural  College,  Amherst,  Massachusetts. 
Mr.  Gifford  Pinchot,  United  States  Forest  Service. 
Mr.  Walter  H.  Page,  Editor  of  The  World's  Work, 

New  York. 

My  immediate  purpose  in  appointing  this  Com- 
mission is  to  secure  from  it  such  information  and  ad- 
vice as  will  enable  me  to  make  recommendations  to 
Congress  upon  this  extremely  important  matter.  I 
shall  be  glad  if  the  Commission  will  report  to  me  upon 
the  present  condition  of  country  life,  upon  what 
means  are  now  available  for  supplying  the  deficiencies 
which  exist,  and  upon  the  best  methods  of  organized 


46       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

permanent  effort  in  investigation  and  actual  work 
along  the  lines  I  have  indicated.  You  will  doubtless 
also  find  it  necessary  to  suggest  means  for  bringing 
about  the  redirection  or  better  adaptation  of  rural 
schools  to  the  training  of  children  for  life  on  the  farm. 
The  national  and  state  agricultural  departments 
must  ultimately  join  with  the  various  farmers'  and 
agricultural  organizations  in  the  effort  to  secure 
greater  efficiency  and  attractiveness  in  country  life. 
In  view  of  the  pressing  importance  of  this  subject, 
I  should  be  glad  to  have  you  report  before  the  end  of 
next  December.  For  that  reason  the  Commission 
will  doubtless  find  it  impracticable  to  undertake  ex- 
tensive investigations,  but  will  rather  confine  itself 
to  a  summary  of  what  is  already  known,  a  statement 
of  the  problem,  and  the  recommendation  of  measures 
tending  towards  its  solution.  With  the  single  excep- 
tion of  the  conservation  of  our  natural  resources, 
which  underlies  the  problem  of  rural  life,  there  is  no 
other  material  question  of  greater  importance  now 
before  the  American  people.  I  shall  look  forward 
with  the  keenest  interest  to  your  report. 
Sincerely  yours, 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 
Professor  L.  H.  Bailey, 

New  York  State  College  of  Agriculture, 
Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

Subsequently,  Charles  S.  Barrett  of  Georgia, 
and  William  A.  Beard  of  California  were  added 
to  the  Commission. 


THE  PROBLEM  47 

The  means  that  may  be  suggested  for  amelio- 
ration of  country  life  fall  under  one  or  more  of 
three  general  classes:  (a)  definite  recommend- 
ations for  executive  or  legislative  action  by  the 
federal  government;  (b)  suggestions  for  legis- 
lative enactment  on  the  part  of  states;  (c)  sug- 
gestions or  recommendations  to  the  public  at 
large  as  to  what  the  Commission  thinks  would  be 
the  most  fruitful  lines  of  action  and  policy  on  the 
part  of  individuals,  communities  or  states. 

The  problem  before  the  Commission  is  to 
state,  with  some  fulness  of  detail,  the  present 
conditions  of  country  life,  to  point  out  the  causes 
that  may  have  led  to  its  present  lack  of  organ- 
ization, to  suggest  methods  by  which  it  may  be 
redirected,  the  drift  to  the  city  arrested,  the 
natural  rights  of  the  farmer  maintained,  and  an 
organized  rural  life  developed  that  will  promote 
the  prosperity  of  the  whole  nation. 

We  are  convinced  that  the  forces  that  make  for 
rural  betterment  must  themselves  be  rural.  We 
must  arouse  the  country  folk  to  the  necessity  for 
action,  and  suggest  agencies  which,  when  properly 
employed,  will  set  them  to  work  to  develop  a 
distinctly  rural  civilization. 


48       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

In  making  its  inquiries,  the  Commission  has 
had  constantly  in  mind  the  relation  of  the  farmer 
to  his  community  and  to  society  in  general.  It 
has  made  no  inquiry  into  problems  of  technical 
farming  except  as  they  may  have  bearing  on 
general  welfare  and  public  questions. 

The  Commission  has  not  assumed  that  country 
life  conditions  are  either  good  or  bad,  nor  is  it 
within  its  province  to  compare  country  con- 
ditions with  city  conditions;  but  it  has  assumed 
that  we  have  not  yet  arrived  at  that  state  of 
society  in  which  conditions  may  not  be  bettered. 

It  is  our  place,  therefore,  to  point  out  the  de- 
ficiencies rather  than  the  advantages  and  the 
progress.  In  doing  this  we  must  be  distinctly 
understood  as  speaking  only  in  general  terms. 
The  conditions  that  we  describe  do  not,  of  course, 
apply  equally  in  all  parts  of  the  country;  and  we 
have  not  been  able  to  make  studies  of  the  prob- 
lems of  particular  localities. 

Before  discussing  the  shortcomings  more  fully, 
we  may  explain  how  the  Commission  undertook 
its  work. 


FIELD  OF  INQUIRY  49 

METHODS  PURSUED  BY  THE  COMMISSION. 

The  field  of  inquiry  has  been  the  general  social, 
economic,  sanitary,  educational  and  labor  con- 
ditions of  the  open  country.  Within  the  time  at 
its  disposal,  the  Commission  has  not  been  able  to 
make  scientific  investigations  into  any  of  these 
questions,  but,  following  the  suggestion  of  the 
President,  has  endeavored  to  give  "a  summary 
of  what  is  already  known,  a  statement  of  the 
problem,  and  the  recommendation  of  measures 
looking  towards  its  solution."  We  have  been 
able  to  make  a  rather  extensive  exploration  or 
reconnoissance  of  the  field,  to  arrive  at  a  judgment 
as  to  the  main  deficiencies  of  country  life  in  the 
United  States  today,  and  to  suggest  some  of  the 
means  of  supplying  these  deficiencies. 

The  Commission  and  its  work  have  met  with 
the  fullest  cooperation  and  confidence  on  the  part 
of  the  farmers  and  others,  and  the  interest  in  the 
subject  has  been  widespread.  The  people  have 
been  frank  in  giving  information  and  expressing 
opinions,  and  in  stating  their  problems  and  dis- 
couragements. There  is  every  evidence  that  the 
people  in  rural  districts  have  welcomed  the 
Commission  as  an  agency  that  is  much  needed 


50       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

in  the  interest  of  country  life,  and  in  many  of  the 
hearings  they  have  asked  that  the  Commission 
be  continued  in  order  that  it  may  make  thorough 
investigations  of  the  subjects  that  it  has  con- 
sidered. The  press  has  taken  great  interest  in  the 
work,  and  in  many  cases  has  been  of  special 
service  to  the  Commission  in  securing  direct  in- 
formation from  country  people. 

The  activities  of  the  Commission  have  been 
directed  mainly  along  four  lines:  the  issuing  of 
questions  designed  to  bring  out  a  statement  of 
conditions  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States;  cor- 
respondence and  inquiries  by  different  members 
of  the  Commission,  so  far  as  time  would  permit, 
each  in  a  particular  field;  the  holding  of  hear- 
ings in  many  widely  separated  places;  discus- 
sions in  local  meetings,  held  in  response  to  a 
special  suggestion  by  the  President.1 


1  The  President's  suggestion  for  meetings  in  school  houses 
and  other  local  places  is  as  follows  (this  letter  was  not  included 
in  the  Report  of  the  Commission.): 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE,  WASHINGTON, 

November  9,    1908. 
My  dear  Professor  Bailey: 

I  wish  at  the  outset  cordially  to  thank  you  for  the  way  in 
which  you  have  taken  hold  of  the  work  you  are  doing.  No 
more  valuable  work  for  the  people  of  this  country  can  be  done, 


THE  QUESTIONS  51 

THE   CIRCULAR   OF   QUESTIONS. 

As  a  means  of  securing  the  opinions  of  the 
people  themselves  on  some  of  the  main  aspects  of 
country  life,  a  set  of  questions  was  distributed, 
as  follows: 

I.  Are  the  farm  homes  in  your  neighborhood 
as  good  as  they  should  be  under  existing 
conditions? 

II.  Are  the  schools  in  your  neighborhood  train- 
ing boys  and  girls  satisfactorily  for  life 
on  the  farm? 

III.  Do  the  farmers  in  your  neighborhood  get 
the  returns  they  reasonably  should  from 
the  sale  of  their  products? 

because  no  more  valuable  work  for  the  farmers  of  this  country 
can  be  done. 

Now  of  course  the  whole  success  of  the  work  depends  upon 
the  attitude  of  the  people  in  the  open  country,  of  the  farming 
people  of  the  United  States.  If  they  feel  an  awakening  interest 
in  what  you  are  doing,  they  should  manifest  it.  Moreover,  it  is 
essential  that  the  farmers,  the  men  who  actually  live  on  the  soil, 
should  feel  a  sense  of  ownership  in  this  Commission,  should  feel 
that  you  gentlemen  in  very  truth  represent  them  and  are  re- 
sponsive to  their  desires  and  wishes,  no  less  than  to  their  needs. 
It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that  it  would  be  wise  to  try  to  get  into 
the  closest  possible  touch  with  the  farmers  of  the  country  and  to 
find  out  from  them,  so  far  as  you  are  able,  just  what  they  regard 
as  being  the  subjects  with  which  it  is  most  important  that  you 
should  deal.  This  you  are  already  doing  by  sending  out  a  cir- 
cular of  questions  and  by  holding  meetings  in  different  parts  of 
the  United  States.  But  perhaps  something  more  can  be  done. 

I  accordingly  suggest  that  you  ask  the  farmers  to  come  to- 
gether in  the  several  school  districts  of  the  country  so  that  they 


52       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

IV.  Do  the  farmers  in  your  neighborhood  re- 
ceive from  the  railroads,  highroads,  trol- 
ley lines,  etc.,  the  services  they  reasonably 
should  have? 

V.  Do  the  farmers  in  your  neighborhood  re- 
ceive from  the  United  States  postal  serv- 
ice, rural  telephones,  etc.,  the  service 
they  reasonably  should  expect? 

VI.  Are  the  farmers  and  their  wives  in  your  neigh- 
borhood satisfactorily  organized  to  promote 
their  mutual  buying  and  selling  interest? 
VII.  Are  the  renters  of  farms  in  your  neighbor- 
hood making  a  satisfactory  living? 
VIII.  Is  the  supply  of  farm  labor  in  your  neighbor- 
hood satisfactory? 

IX.  Are  the  conditions  surrounding  hired  labor 
on  the  farms  in  your  neighborhood  satis- 
factory to  the  hired  man? 


may  meet  and  consider  these  matters.  I  suggest  the  school  dis- 
tricts because  the  school  house  would  be  the  natural  and  proper 
place  for  such  a  meeting;  or  they  could  meet  at  other  customary 
or  convenient  places.  It  would  be  well  if  the  meetings  could  be 
held  within  the  next  three  or  four  weeks;  that  is,  before  Con- 
gress adjourns  prior  to  the  Christmas  holidays,  so  that  at  the 
time  of  the  reassembling  of  Congress  early  in  January  you  will 
have  the  reports  of  the  meetings  and  so  will  be  in  position  to 
advise  definitely  what  should  be  done.  I  suggest  that  you  ask 
them  to  meet,  not  later  than  Saturday,  December  5th;  and  you 
will,  of  course,  use  your  own  judgment  whether  to  summon  the 
meeting  by  circular  or  otherwise. 

Thruout  this  letter  where  I  use  the  word  "farmers"  I  mean 
also  to  include  all  those  who  live  in  the  open  country  and  are 
intimately  connected  with  those  who  do  the  farm  work — min- 
isters, school  teachers,  physicians,  editors  of  country  papers,  in 


THE  QUESTIONS  53 

X.  Have    the    farmers    in    your    neighborhood 
satisfactory  facilities  for  doing  their  busi- 
ness in  banking,  credit,  insurance,  etc.? 
XI.  Are  the  sanitary  conditions  of  farms  in  your 

neighborhood  satisfactory? 

XII.  Do  the  farmers  and  their  wives  and  families 

in   your   neighborhood    get   together    for 

mutual  improvement,  entertainment  and 

social  intercourse  as  much  as  they  should? 

What,    in  your  judgment,    is  the  most    important 

single  thing  to  be  done  for  the  general  betterment 

of  country  life? 

Note:  Following  each  question  are  the  sub-ques- 
tions: 

a.  Why? 

b.  What  suggestions  have  you  to  make? 

short,  all  men  and  women  whose  life  work  is  done  either  on  the 
farm  or  in  connection  with  the  life  work  of  those  who  are  on  the 
farm. 

You  know  better  than  I  what  topics  you  will  suggest.  How 
would  it  do  to  include  such  topics  as: 

The  efficiency  of  the  rural  schools; 
Fanners'  organizations; 
The  question  of  farm  labor; 
The  need  of  good  roads; 
Improved  postal  facilities; 
Sanitary  conditions  on  the  farm. 

Your  purpose  is  neither  to  investigate  the  farmer,  nor  to  in- 
quire into  technical  methods  of  farming.  You  are  simply  trying 
to  ascertain  what  are  the  general  economic,  social,  educational 
and  sanitary  conditions  of  the  open  country,  and  what,  if  any- 
thing, the  farmers  themselves  can  do  to  help  themselves,  and 
how  the  Government  can  help  them.  To  this  end  your  especial 


54       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

About  550,000  copies  of  the  circular  questions 
were  sent  to  names  supplied  by  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture,  state  experiment 
stations,  farmers'  societies,  women's  clubs,  to 
rural  free  deliverymen,  country  physicians  and 
ministers,  and  others.  To  these  inquiries  about 
115,000  persons  have  now  replied,  mostly  with 
much  care  and  with  every  evidence  of  good  faith. 
Nearly  100,000  of  these  circulars  have  been  ar- 

desire  is  to  get  in  touch  with  and  represent  the  farmers  them- 
selves. The  Commission  now  consists  of  five  members.  I  shall 
ask  two  more  gentlemen  to  serve  upon  it,  so  that  the  full  mem- 
bership will  be  as  follows: 

Professor  L.  H.  Bailey,  New  York  State  College  of  Agriculture, 

Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  Chairman; 

Mr.  Henry  Wallace,   Wallaces'  Farmer:  Des   Moines,  Iowa; 
Kenyon  L.  Butterfield,  President  Massachusetts  Agricultural 

College,  Amherst,  Mass.; 

Gifford  Pinchot,  U.  S.  Forest  Service,  Washington,  D.  C.; 
Walter  H.  Page,  of  North  Carolina,  Editor  of  The  World's  Work; 
Charles  S.  Barrett,  Union  City,  Ga.,  and 
William  A.  Beard,  Sacramento,  Cal. 

Again  thanking  you,  and  with  all  good  wishes  for  your  success 
in  this  great  and  important  work,  believe  me, 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 

Professor  L.  H.  Bailey,  Chairman, 
Commission  on  Country  Life, 
New  York  State  College  of  Agriculture, 
Ithaca,  New  York. 


MEETINGS  55 

ranged  and  some  of  the  information  tabulated  in 
a  preliminary  way  by  the  Census  Bureau.  In 
addition  to  the  replies  to  the  circulars,  great 
numbers  of  letters  and  carefully  written  state- 
ments have  been  received,  making  altogether  an 
invaluable  body  of  information,  opinion  and  sug- 
gestion. 

THE   HEARINGS. 

Hearings  were  held  at  thirty  places  by  the 
whole  Commission,  or  part  of  it,  between  No- 
vember 9  and  December  22, 1908;  and  frequently 
two  or  more  long  sessions  were  held.  Very  full 
notes  were  taken  of  the  proceedings.  They  were 
attended  by  good  audiences,  in  some  instances 
overflowing  the  hall.  At  several,  especially  in 
the  Northwest,  delegates  were  in  attendance  rep- 
resenting associations  and  communities  in  the 
vicinity,  who  were  anxious  to  present  their  views 
and  needs.  Speeches  were  numerous  and  usually 
short  and  pithy,  and  represented  every  sort  of 
person  concerned  with  rural  life,  including  many 
women,  who  contributed  much  to  the  domestic 
and  educational  aspects  of  the  subject.  The 
governors  and  principal  officials  of  the  states 


56       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

were  often  present;  and  also  the  presidents  and 
professors  of  institutions  of  learning,  clergymen, 
physicians,  librarians,  and  others,  but  the  bulk 
of  the  speakers  and  audiences  was  country 
people.  No  attempt  was  made  to  follow  a  defi- 
nite program  of  questioning,  but  general  dis- 
cussions proceeded,  with  an  occasional  show  of 
hands  or  outburst  of  applause  to  signify  general 
assent  to  the  speaker's  words. 

The  hearings  were  held  as  follows: 

Nov.    9,       College  Park,  Md. 

10,  Richmond,  Va. 

11,  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  and  Athens,  Ga. 

12,  Spartansburg,  S.  C. 

13,  Knoxville,  Tenn. 

14,  Lexington,  Ky. 
16-18,  Washington,  D.  C. 
19-21,  Dallas,  Texas. 
22-23,  El  Paso,  Texas. 
24,       Tucson,  Ariz. 
25-26,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 
27-28,  Fresno,  Cal. 
28-29,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
30,        Sacramento,  Cal. 

Dec.    1,       Reno,  Nevada. 
2,        Portland,  Ore. 

4-5,   Spokane,  Wash.,  (and  at  Opportun- 
ity, near  by). 


HEARINGS  57 

Dec.     2-3,   Salt  Lake  City,  Utah.  , 

5,  Cheyenne,  Wyo. 

6,  Bozeman,  Mont. 
7-8,    Denver,  Col. 
9-10,  Omaha,  Neb. 

10,  Council  Bluffs,  la. 

11,  Minneapolis,    Minn.    (St.    Anthony 

Park). 

12,  Madison,  Wis. 
14,       Champaign,  111. 

16,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

17,  Springfield,  Mass. 

18,  Boston,  Mass. 

22,       Washington,  D.  C. 

THE   SCHOOL-HOUSE   MEETINGS. 

The  suggestion  of  the  President  that  the 
country  people  of  the  United  States  come  to- 
gether in  their  district  school-houses  to  discuss 
country  life  questions  under  consideration  by  the 
Commission,  was  officially  transmitted  by  the 
Commission  to  the  state  and  county  super- 
intendents of  schools  of  every  state  and  territory. 
A  great  part  of  the  press  of  the  country  quoted 
the  suggestion  in  full,  often  printing  with  it  the 
original  list  of  questions  issued  by  the  Com- 
mission. School  officials,  ministers  of  country 
churches  and  other  persons  concerned  in  the  ad- 


58       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

vancement  of  country  matters,  contributed  their 
active  efforts  for  organizing  such  meetings.  Re- 
ports of  meetings  have  already  come  in  from 
almost  every  state,  and  we  have  notice  of  many 
meetings  still  to  be  held.  Separate  states  have 
set  specific  days  for  simultaneous  meetings  in  all 
their  country  school-houses,  notably  Nebraska 
and  Missouri.  The  States  of  Washington,  Ore- 
gon, Montana  and  Idaho  by  concerted  arrange- 
ment held  a  meeting  December  5,  the  date  sug- 
gested by  the  President.  Suggestion  has  come 
from  many  parts  of  the  country  for  the  regular 
establishment  of  such  meetings  for  annual  na- 
tional observance  by  the  country  people  as  an 
inventory-taking  day,  and  for  planning  com- 
munity advancement  for  the  ensuing  year. 


II 

THE   MAIN   SPECIAL   DEFICIENCES   IN 
COUNTRY  LIFE 

The  numbers  of  problems  and  suggestions  that 
have  been  presented  to  the  Commission  in  the 
hearings  and  through  the  correspondence  are 
very  great.  We  have  chosen  for  special  dis- 
cussion those  that  are  most  significant  and  that 
seem  most  to  call  for  immediate  action.  The 
main  single  deficiency  is,  of  course,  lack  of  the 
proper  kind  of  education,  but  inasmuch  as  the 
redirection  of  educational  methods  is  also  the 
main  remedy  for  the  shortcomings  of  country 
life,  as  also  of  any  other  life,  the  discussion  of  it 
may  be  reserved  for  Part  III. 

1.  DISREGARD    OP   THE   INHERENT   RIGHTS  OP 

LAND-WORKERS. 

Notwithstanding  an  almost  universal  recog- 
nition of  the  importance  of  agriculture  to  the 
maintenance  of  our  people,  there  is  nevertheless 
a  widespread  disregard  of  the  rights  of  the  men 


60       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

who  own  and  work  the  land.  This  results  di- 
rectly in  social  depression  as  well  as  in  economic 
disadvantage. 

The  organized  and  corporate  interests  rep- 
resented in  mining,  manufacturing,  merchan- 
dizing, transportation  and  the  like,  seem  often 
to  hold  the  idea  that  their  business  may  be  de- 
veloped and  exploited  without  regard  to  the 
farmers  who  should,  however,  have  an  equal  op- 
portunity for  enjoyment  of  the  land,  forests  and 
streams,  and  of  the  right  to  buy  and  sell  in  the 
open  markets  without  prejudice. 

The  question  of  the  moral  intention  of  the  con- 
solidated interests  is  not  involved  in  these  state- 
ments. The  present  condition  has  grown  up; 
and  without  going  into  the  reasons,  it  is  imper- 
ative that  we  recognize  these  disadvantages  to 
country  life  interests  and  seek  to  correct  them. 
The  way  in  which  discriminating  conditions  may 
arise  is  well  illustrated  in  the  inequalities  of  tax- 
ation of  farm  property.  It  is  natural  that  visible 
and  stationary  property  should  be  taxed  freely 
under  our  present  system;  it  is  equally  natural 
that  invisible  and  changeable  property  should 
tend  to  evade  taxation.  The  inevitable  result  is 


INHERENT  RIGHTS  61 

that  the  farmer's  property  bears  an  unjust  part 
in  taxation  schemes. 

Nor  is  this  disregard  of  the  inherent  rights  of 
the  land-worker  confined  to  corporations  and 
companies,  or  to  the  recognized  inequalities  of 
taxation.  It  .is  often  shared  by  cities.  Instead 
of  taking  care  of  their  own  undesirables,  they 
often  turn  them  off  on  the  country  districts. 
The  "fringe"  of  a  city  thereby  becomes  a  low- 
class  or  even  vicious  community,  and  its  influence 
often  extends  far  into  the  country  districts. 
The  Commission  hears  complaints  that  hoboes 
are  driven  from  the  cities  and  towns  into  the 
country  districts  where  there  is  no  machinery  for 
controlling  them. 

The  subjects  to  which  we  are  here  inviting  at- 
tention are,  of  course,  not  confined  to  country 
life  alone.  They  express  an  attitude  toward 
public  questions  in  general.  We  look  for  the  de- 
velopment of  a  sentiment  that  will  protect  and 
promote  the  welfare  of  all  the  people  whenever 
there  is  a  conflict  with  the  interests  of  a  small  or 
particular  class. 

The  handicaps  that  we  now  have  specially  in 
mind  may  be  stated  under  four  heads:  Specu- 


62       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

lative  holding  of  lands;  monopolistic  control  of 
streams;  wastage  and  monopolistic  control  of 
forests;  restraint  of  trade. 

(a)    SPECULATIVE   HOLDING   OF   LANDS. 

Certain  land-owners  procure  large  areas  of 
agricultural  land  in  the  most  available  location, 
sometimes  by  questionable  methods,  and  hold  it 
for  speculative  purposes.  This  not  only  with- 
draws the  land  itself  from  settlement,  but  in 
many  cases  prevents  the  development  of  an  agri- 
cultural community.  The  smaller  land-owners 
are  isolated  and  unable  to  establish  their  neces- 
sary institutions  or  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
market.  The  holding  of  large  areas  by  one  party, 
tends  to  develop  a  system  of  tenantry  and 
absentee  farming.  The  whole  development  may 
be  in  the  direction  of  social  and  economic  ineffec- 
tiveness. In  parts  of  the  West  and  South,  this 
evil  is  so  pronounced  that  persons  have  requested 
the  Commission  to  recommend  measures  of  re- 
lief by  restricting,  under  law,  the  size  of  specu- 
lative holdings  of  agricultural  lands. 

A  similar  problem  arises  in  respect  to  the  utili- 
zation of  the  swamp  lands  of  the  United  States. 


SWAMP  LANDS  63 

According  to  the  reports  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  there  are  more  than  seventy- 
five  million  acres  of  swamp  land  in  this  country, 
the  greater  part  of  which  are  capable  of  reclama- 
tion at  probably  a  nominal  cost  as  compared  to 
their  value.  It  is  important  to  the  development 
of  the  best  type  of  country  life  that  the  reclama- 
tion of  the  lands  in  rural  regions  proceed  under 
conditions  insuring  their  subdivision  into  small 
farm  units  and  their  settlement  by  men  who 
would  both  own  them  and  till  them.  Some  of 
these  lands  are  near  the  centers  of  population. 
They  become  a  menace  to  health,  and  they  often 
prevent  the  development  of  good  social  con- 
ditions in  very  large  areas  of  country.  As  a  rule, 
they  are  extremely  fertile.  They  are  capable  of 
sustaining  an  agricultural  population  numbering 
many  millions;  and  the  conditions  under  which 
these  millions  must  live  are  properly  a  matter  of 
national  concern.  In  view  of  these  facts,  the 
federal  government  should  act  to  the  fullest  ex- 
tent of  its  constitutional  powers  in  securing  the 
reclamation  of  these  lands  under  proper  safe- 
guards against  speculative  holding  and  land- 
lordism. It  may  be  that  in  the  case  of  those  lands 


64       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

ceded  to  the  states  for  the  purpose  of  reclamation, 
the  greater  part  of  which  are  unreclaimed,  there 
exists  a  special  authority  on  the  part  of  the  federal 
government  by  reason  of  failure  to  comply  with 
the  terms  of  the  grant;  and  there  should  be  a 
vigorous  legal  inquiry  into  the  present  rights  of 
the  government  with  respect  to  them,  followed, 
if  the  status  warrants  it,  by  legal  steps  to  rescind 
the  grants  and  to  begin  the  practical  work  of  rec- 
lamation. 

(b)    MONOPOLISTIC   CONTROL   OF   STREAMS. 

The  legitimate  farming  interests  of  the  whole 
country  would  be  vastly  benefited  by  a  systema- 
tic conservation  and  utilization,  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  state  and  federal  governments,  of  our 
waterways  both  great  and  small.  Important  ad- 
vantages of  these  waterways  are  likely  to  be  ap- 
propriated in  perpetuity  and  without  adequate 
return  to  the  people  by  monopolistic  interests 
that  deprive  the  permanent  agricultural  in- 
habitants of  the  use  of  them. 

The  rivers  are  valuable  to  the  farmers  as 
drainage  lines,  as  sources  of  irrigation  supply,  as 
carriers  and  equalizers  of  transportation  rates,  as 
a  readily  available  power  resource,  and  for  the 


RIVERS  65 

raising  of  food  fish.  The  wise  development  of 
these  and  other  uses  is  important  to  both  agri- 
cultural and  other  interests ;  their  protection  from 
monopoly  is  one  of  the  first  responsibilities  of  gov- 
ernment. The  streams  belong  to  the  people ;  under 
a  proper  system  of  development  their  resources 
would  remain  an  estate  of  all  the  people,  and  be- 
come available  as  needed.  A  broad  constructive 
program  involving  coordinate  development  of 
the  many  uses  of  streams,  under  conditions  in- 
suring their  permanent  control  in  the  interest  of 
the  people  themselves,  is  urgently  needed,  and 
none  should  be  more  concerned  in  this  than  the 
farmers. 

River  navigation  affords  the  best  and  cheapest 
transportation  of  farm  products  of  a  non-perish- 
able nature.  The  rivers  afford  the  best  means  of 
competition  with  railroads,  because  river  carriage 
is  cheap,  and  because  the  rivers  once  opened  by 
the  government  for  navigation  are  open  to  all 
and  monopoly  of  their  use  should  be  an  im- 
possibility. Interest  in  river  improvement  for 
the  purpose  of  navigation  is  very  keen  among  the 
farmers  who  actually  use  river  transportation, 
and  to  some  extent  among  farmers  who  enjoy 


66       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

advantages  in  railway  rates  due  to  parallel  water 
lines;  but  the  great  mass  of  farmers,  while  com- 
plaining of  what  they  affirm  to  be  unjust  and 
exhorbitant  railway  rates,  have  given  too  little 
thought  to  the  means  of  relief  with  which  nature 
has  favored  them.  This  is  probably  due  to  lack 
of  knowledge  of  the  actual  economies  of  river 
transportation.  For  example,  one  community 
located  200  miles  from  a  former  head  of  naviga- 
tion, ships  wheat  by  rail  to  a  market  that  is 
1,033  miles  distant,  at  a  cost  of  21  cents  per 
bushel,  yet  it  showed  no  interest  in  the  reopening 
of  the  channel  that  would  reduce  the  train  haul  to 
less  than  one  fifth  the  distance. 

This  failure  to  consider  the  waterways  is 
probably  due  very  largely  to  the  high  rates  per 
ton  mile  charged  by  railroads  for  short  hauls. 
Under  the  present  methods  of  fixing  the  railway 
tariffs,  local  rates  are  often  almost  or  quite  as 
great  as  between  points  far  distant,  and  there  is 
small  inducement  to  use  cheap  river  freights  be- 
cause of  the  cost  of  reaching  the  river  banks. 
The  remedy  for  this  lies  in  two  directions:  It 
must  come  either  from  a  rearrangement  of  freight 
schedules,  which  may  involve  a  complete  change 


RIVERS  67 

in  the  present  policy  of  the  railway  companies 
with  reference  thereto;  or  by  means  of  com- 
petition by  independent  or  local  companies. 

It  must  be  remembered,  also,  that  no  interests 
inimical  to  the  public  welfare  should  be  allowed  to 
acquire  permanent  control  of  the  stream  banks. 
Facilities  for  ready  and  economical  approach  are 
practically  as  important  as  the  channels  them- 
selves. 

River  transportation  is  not  usually  antago- 
nistic to  railway  interests.  Population  and  pro- 
duction are  increasing  rapidly,  with  correspond- 
ing increase  in  the  demands  made  on  transporta- 
tion facilities.  It  may  be  reasonably  expected 
that  in  the  evolution  of  the  transportation  busi- 
ness, the  rivers  will  eventually  carry  a  large  part 
of  the  freight  that  does  not  require  prompt  de- 
livery, while  the  railways  will  carry  that  requiring 
expeditious  handling.  This  is  already  foreseen 
by  leading  railway  men;  and  its  importance  to 
the  farmer  is  such  that  he  should  encourage  and 
aid,  by  every  means  in  his  power,  the  movement 
for  large  use  of  the  rivers.  The  country  will  pro- 
duce enough  business  to  tax  both  streams  and 
railroads  to  their  utmost. 


68       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

In  many  regions  the  streams  afford  facilities 
for  the  development  of  power,  which,  since  the 
successful  inauguration  of  electrical  transmission, 
is  available  for  local  rail  lines  and  offers  the  best 
solution  of  local  transportation  problems.  In 
many  parts  of  the  country,  local  and  interurban 
lines  are  providing  transportation  to  farm  areas, 
thereby  increasing  the  facilities  for  moving  crops 
and  adding  to  the  profit  and  convenience  of  farm 
life.  Notwithstanding  this  development,  how- 
ever, there  seems  to  be  a  very  general  lack  of  ap- 
preciation, on  the  part  of  farmers,  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  this  water-power  resource  as  a  factor 
in  governing  transportation  costs. 

The  streams  may  also  be  used  as  a  source  of 
small  water  power  on  thousands  of  farms.  This 
is  particularly  true  of  the  small  streams.  Much 
of  the  manual  labor  about  the  house  and  barn  can 
be  performed  from  transmission  of  power  from 
small  water-wheels  running  on  the  farms  them- 
selves or  in  the  neighborhood.  This  power  could 
be  used  for  electric  lighting  and  for  small  manu- 
facture. It  is  more  important  that  small  power 
be  developed  on  the  farms  of  the  United  States 
than  that  we  harness  Niagara. 


STREAMS  69 

Unfortunately,  the  tendency  of  the  present 
laws  is  to  encourage  the  acquisition  of  these  re- 
sources on  easy  terms  or  on  their  own  terms  by 
the  first  applicants,  and  the  power  of  the  streams 
is  rapidly  being  acquired  under  conditions  that 
lead  to  the  concentration  of  ownership  in  the 
hands  of  monopolies.  This  state  of  things  con- 
stitutes a  real  and  immediate  danger,  not  to  the 
country  life  interests  alone,  but  to  the  entire 
nation,  and  it  is  time  that  the  whole  people  be- 
come aroused  to  it. 

The  laws  under  which  water  is  appropriated 
or  flowage  rights  secured  for  power  were  enacted 
prior  to  the  introduction  of  electrical  trans- 
mission, and,  consequently,  before  there  was  any 
possibility  of  water  power  becoming  of  more  than 
local  importance  or  value.  Monopoly  of  water 
power  was  practically  impossible  while  the 
sources  and  uses  were  alike  isolated,  but  the 
present  ability  to  concentrate  the  power  of 
streams  and  to  develop  transportation,  manu- 
facturing, heating,  and  lighting  on  a  vast  scale 
invites  monopolization. 

It  appears  as  a  result  of  governmental  in- 
vestigation that  practically  in  the  last  five  years 


70       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

there  has  been  a  very  significant  concentration  of 
water  powers;  that  this  concentration  has  now 
placed  about  33  per  cent  of  the  total  developed 
water  powers  of  the  country  under  the  control  of 
a  group  of  thirteen  companies  or  interests;  that 
there  are  very  strong  economic  and  technical 
reasons  forcing  such  concentration.  The  rapid 
concentration  already  accomplished,  together 
with  the  obvious  technical  reasons  for  further 
control  and  the  financial  advantages  to  be  gained 
by  a  substantial  monopoly,  justifies  the  fear  that 
the  concentration  already  accomplished  is  but 
the  forerunner  of  a  far  greater  degree  of  mono- 
poly of  water  power.  Unless  the  people  become 
aroused  to  the  danger  to  their  interests,  there 
will  probably  be  developed  a  monopoly  greater 
than  any  the  world  has  yet  seen. 

The  development  of  power  plants  and  of  in- 
dustries using  this  power  ought  to  be  encouraged 
by  every  legitimate  and  proper  means.  It  should 
not  be  necessary,  however,  to  grant  perpetual 
rights  in  order  to  encourage  this  development. 
There  should  be  no  perpetual  grant  of  water 
power  privileges.  On  the  contrary,  the  owner- 
ship of  the  people  should  be  perpetually  main- 


IRRIGATION  WATER  71 

tained,  and  grants  should  be  in  the  nature  of 
terminable  franchises. 

The  irrigation  water  should  be  protected. 
Farm  life  in  the  irrigated  regions  is  usually  of  an 
advanced  type,  due  principally  to  the  small  size 
of  farms  and  the  resulting  social  and  educational 
advantages,  and  to  intensive  agriculture.  Be- 
cause of  these  facts,  the  development  of  the  arid 
regions  by  irrigation  may  be  a  distinct  contribu- 
tion to  the  improvement  of  the  country  life  of  the 
nation.  In  the  use  of  streams  for  irrigation,  as 
in  other  uses,  monopoly  should  be  discouraged. 
The  ownership  of  water  for  irrigation  is  no  less 
important  than  the  ownership  of  land;  water- 
lordism  is  as  much  to  be  feared  as  landlordism. 
In  the  irrigated  regions,  the  water  is  more  valu- 
able than  the  land  to  which  it  is  applied;  the 
availability  of  the  water  supply  often  gives  to  the 
land  all  the  value  that  it  has,  and  when  this  is 
true  it  must  follow  that  the  farmer  must  own 
both  the  water  and  the  land  if  he  is  to  be  master 
of  his  own  fortunes.  One  of  the  very  best  ele- 
ments of  any  population  is  the  independent 
home-owning  farmer,  and  the  tendency  of  govern- 
ment, so  far  as  may  be  practicable,  should  be  to- 


72       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

wards  securing  the  ownership  of  the  land  by  the 
man  who  lives  on  it  and  tills  it.  It  should  seek 
to  vest  in  the  farmer  of  the  irrigated  region  the 
title  to  his  water  supply  and  to  protect  his  tenure 
of  it.  The  national  reclamation  act  under  which 
large  areas  of  arid  land  are  now  being  placed 
under  irrigation,  is  commended  as  a  contribution 
to  the  development  of  a  good  country  life  in  the 
West,  not  alone  because  it  renders  available  for 
settlement  large  areas  of  previously  worthless 
land,  but  still  more  because  it  insures  to  settlers 
the  ownership  of  both  the  land  and  the  water. 

The  need  to  utilize  the  streams  is  to  be  con- 
sidered in  the  East  as  well  as  in  the  West. 

The  Commission  suggests  that  a  special  in- 
quiry be  made  of  the  control  of  stream  resources 
of  the  United  States,  with  the  object  of  protecting 
the  people  in  their  ownership  and  of  reserving  to 
agricultural  uses  such  benefits  as  should  be  re- 
served for  these  purposes. 

(c)  WASTAGE  AND  CONTROL  OF  FORESTS. 

The  forests  have  been  exploited  for  private 
gain  until  not  only  has  the  timber  been  seriously 
reduced,  but  until  streams  have  been  ruined  for 


FORESTS  73 

navigation,  power,  irrigation  and  common  water 
supplies  and  whole  regions  have  been  exposed  to 
floods  and  disastrous  soil  erosion.  Probably 
there  has  never  occurred  a  more  reckless  de- 
struction of  property  that  of  right  should  belong 
to  all  the  people.  These  devastations  are  checked 
on  the  government  lands,  but  similar  devastation 
in  other  parts  of  the  country  is  equally  in  need  of 
attention.  The  Commission  has  heard  strong 
demands  from  farmers  for  the  establishment  of 
forest  reservations  in  the  White  Mountains  and 
the  southern  Appalachian  region,  to  save  the 
timber  and  to  control  the  sources  of  streams,  and 
no  statements  in  opposition  to  the  proposal. 
Measures  should  be  enacted  creating  such 
reservations.  The  forests  as  well  as  the 
streams  should  be  saved  from  monopolistic 
control. 

The  conservation  of  forests  and  brush  on 
watershed  areas  is  important  to  the  farmer  along 
the  full  length  of  streams  regardless  of  the  dis- 
tance between  the  farm  and  these  areas.  The 
loss  of  soil  in  denuded  areas  increases  the  menace 
of  flood,  not  alone  because  of  the  more  rapid 
run-off,  but  by  the  filling  of  channels  and  the 


74       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

greater  erosion  of  stream  banks  when  soil  matter 
is  carried  in  suspension. 

Loss  of  soil  by  washing  is  a  serious  menace  to 
the  fertility  of  the  American  farm.  A  high 
authority  on  this  subject  recently  made  the 
statement  that  soil  wash  is  "the  heaviest  impost 
borne  by  the  American  farmer." 

The  wood-lot  property  of  the  country  needs 
to  be  saved  and  increased.  Wood-lot  yield  is  one 
of  the  most  important  crops  of  the  farm,  and  is 
of  great  value  to  the  public  in  controlling  streams, 
saving  the  run-off,  checking  winds,  and  in  adding 
to  the  attractiveness  of  the  region.  In  many 
regions,  where  poor  and  hilly  lands  prevail,  the 
town  or  county  could  well  afford  to  purchase 
forest  land,  expecting  thereby  to  add  to  the  value 
of  the  property  and  eventually  to  make  the 
forests  a  source  of  revenue.  Such  communal 
forests  in  Europe  yield  revenue  to  the  cities  and 
towns  by  which  they  are  owned  and  managed. 

(d)    RESTRAINT   OF   TRADE. 

The  Commission  has  heard  much  complaint, 
in  all  parts  of  the  country  and  by  all  classes  of 
farmers,  of  injustice,  inequalities  and  discrimina- 


RESTRAINT  OF  TRADE  75 

tion  on  the  part  of  transportation  companies  and 
middlemen.  These  are  the  most  universal  direct 
complaints  that  have  been  presented  to  the 
Commission.  If  the  statements  can  be  trusted, 
the  business  of  farming  as  a  whole  is  greatly  re- 
pressed by  lack  of  mutual  understanding  and 
good  faith  in  the  transportation  and  marketing 
of  agricultural  produce. 

Without  expressing  an  opinion  on  these  ques- 
tions, we  feel  that  there  should  be  a  free  under- 
standing between  transportation  companies  and 
farmers  in  respect  to  their  mutual  business.  We 
find  that  farmers  who  have  well-informed  opin- 
ions on  tariff,  education  and  other  public  ques- 
tions are  yet  wholly  uninformed  in  respect  to  the 
transportation  man's  point  of  view  on  freight 
rates  and  express  rates  that  may  be  in  dispute. 
A  disposition  on  the  part  of  all  parties  to  discuss 
the  misunderstandings  fairly  would  probably 
accomplish  much. 

The  whole  matter  of  railway  freight  rates 
should  be  made  more  understandable.  There 
should  be  a  simplifying  or  codifying  of  rates  that 
will  enable  the  farmer  or  a  group  of  farmers  or  of 
other  citizens  who  use  the  railways,  to  ascertain 


76       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

readily  from  the  published  tariffs  the  actual  rate 
on  any  given  commodity  between  two  points. 
Railway  rate-making  is  fundamentally  a  matter 
of  public  importance.  The  rates  are  a  large  factor 
in  the  development  of  population;  in  many 
instances  the  railway  rates  determine  both  the 
character  of  the  population  and  the  development 
of  industry.  The  railway  companies,  by  their 
rates,  may  decide  where  the  centers  of  distribu- 
tion shall  be,  what  areas  shall  develop  manufac- 
tures and  other  special  industries.  To  the  extent 
that  they  do  this  they  exercise  a  purely  public 
function,  and  for  this  reason  alone,  if  for  no  other, 
the  government  should  exercise  a  wise  super- 
vision over  the  making  and  publication  of  rates. 
Favoritism  to  large  shippers  has  been  one  of  the 
principal  abuses  of  the  transportation  business 
and  has  contributed  to  the  growth  of  monopolies 
of  trade.  While  rebating  is  largely  discontinued, 
it  is  very  generally  believed  that  this  favoritism 
is  still  practiced,  in  various  forms,  to  an  entent 
that  works  a  hardship  on  the  small  shipper  and 
the  unorganized  interests.  Complaint  is  not  con- 
fined to  steam  roads  alone  but  is  directed  towards 
the  trolley  lines  as  well.  There  is  a  feeling  that 


RATES  77 

trolley  systems  should  be  feeders  to  the  steam 
roads,  and  that  these  systems  which  are  rapidly 
being  extended  through  rural  districts  should 
afford  to  farmers  a  freight  service  that  is  ready, 
rapid,  and  cheap.  It  is  charged  that  this  is  not 
done,  that  steam  lines  discourage  the  use  of  the 
trolleys  for  freight,  or  absorb  them  and  eliminate 
competition  to  the  detriment  of  the  farm  popu- 
lation which  they  should  most  benefit. 

The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  ex- 
ercises a  most  valuable  governmental  function. 
It  is  a  body  to  which  complaint  may  be  made  of 
any  rate  considered  to  be  unreasonable.  It  has 
been  of  great  benefit  to  the  farmers  of  the 
country.  What  is  needed  now  is  a  careful  study 
of  the  railway  situation  with  a  veiw  to  reaching 
and  correcting  abuses  and  practices  still  in 
existence  that  operate  against  the  unorganized 
and  the  rural  interests. 

In  this  connection,  attention  is  invited  to  the 
fact  that  many  states  have  railway  commissions 
charged  with  the  dufy  of  protecting  the  public 
from  paying  exorbitant  frieght  rates,  and  farmers 
who  feel  that  they  are  charged  more  than  is  fair 
should  see  to  it,  first,  that  their  state  railway 


78       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

commissions  are  composed  of  men  who  will  do 
their  duty;  and,  second,  that  these  men  are 
sustained  in  honest  efforts  to  do  their  duty  with 
fairness  to  all  concerned.  The  charge  is  fre- 
quently made  that  these  commissions  are  not 
effective,  but  as  they  are  a  part  of  the  machinery 
of  the  state,  it  would  seem  that  the  farmers  have 
here  an  excellent  opportunity  to  serve  their  inter- 
ests by  active  devotion  to  a  plain  political  duty. 
Dissatisfaction  with  the  prevailing  systems  of 
marketing  is  very  general.  There  is  a  wide- 
spread belief  that  certain  middlemen  consume  a 
share  of  agricultural  sales  out  of  all  proportion  to 
the  services  they  render,  either  to  the  consumer 
or  the  producer,  making  a  larger  profit — often 
without  risk — in  the  selling  of  the  product  than 
the  farmer  makes  in  producing  it.  We  have  no 
desire  to  condemn  middlemen  as  a  class.  We 
have  no  doubt  that  there  are  many  businesses 
of  this  kind  that  are  conducted  on  a  square  deal 
basis,  but  we  are  led  to  believe  that  grave  abuses 
are  practiced  by  unscrupulous  persons  and  firms, 
and  we  recommend  a  searching  inquiry  into  the 
methods  employed  in  the  sale  of  produce  on 
commission. 


THE  FARMER'S  INHERENT  RIGHTS.    .79 

(e)    REMEDIES  FOR  THE  DISREGARD  OF  THE  INHEB- 
ENT   RIGHTS   OF   THE   FARMER. 

We  need,  in  the  first  place,  as  a  people,  to 
recognize  the  necessary  rights  of  the  individual 
farmer  to  the  use  of  the  native  resources  and 
agencies  that  go  with  the  utilization  of  agricul- 
tural lands,  and  to  protect  him  from  hindrance 
and  encroachment  in  the  normal  development 
of  his  business.  If  the  farmer  suffers  because  his 
business  is  small,  isolated  and  unsyndicated, 
then  it  is  the  part  of  government  to  see  that  he 
has  a  natural  opportunity  among  his  fellows  and 
a  square  deal. 

In  the  second  place,  we  need  such  an  attitude 
of  government,  both  state  and  national,  as  will 
safeguard  the  separate  and  individual  rights  of 
the  farmer,  in  the  interest  of  the  public  good.  As 
a  contribution  toward  this  attitude,  we  commend 
the  general  policy  of  the  present  administration 
to  safeguard  the  streams,  forests,  coal  lands,  and 
phosphate  lands,  and  in  endeavoring  to  develop 
a  home-owning  settlement  in  the  irrigated  regions. 

At  the  moment,  one  of  the  most  available  and 
effective  single  means  of  giving  the  farmer  the 
benefit  of  his  natural  opportunities  is  the  enlarge- 


80       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

ment  of  government  service  to  the  country 
people  through  the  post  office.  We  hold  that  a 
parcels  post  and  a  postal  savings  bank  system  are 
necessities;  and  as  rapidly  as  possible  the  rural 
free  delivery  of  mails  should  be  extended.  Every- 
where we  have  found  the  farmers  demanding  the 
parcels  post.  It  is  opposed  by  many  merchants, 
transportation  organizations  and  established  in- 
terests. We  do  not  think  that  the  parcels  post 
will  injure  the  merchant  in  the  small  town  or 
elsewhere.  Whatever  will  permanently  benefit 
the  farmer  will  benefit  the  country  as  a  whole. 
Both  town  and  country  would  readjust  them- 
selves to  the  new  conditions.  We  recognize  the 
great  value  of  the  small  town  to  the  country 
districts  and  would  not  see  it  displaced  or 
crippled;  but  the  character  of  the  open  country 
largely  makes  or  unmakes  the  country  town. 

In  order  that  fundamental  correctives  may  be 
applied,  we  recommend  that  a  thoroughgoing 
study  or  investigation  be  made  of  the  relation  of 
business  practices  and  of  taxation  to  the  welfare 
of  the  farmer,  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  what 
discriminations  and  deficiencies  may  exist,  wheth- 
er legislation  is  needed,  and  to  give  publicity  to 


the  entire  subject.  This  investigation  should 
include  the  entire  middleman  system,  farmers' 
cooperative  organizations,  transportation  rates 
and  practices,  taxation  of  agricultural  property, 
methods  of  securing  funds  on  reasonable  condi- 
tions for  agricultural  uses,  and  the  entire  range 
of  economic  questions  involved  in  the  relation  of 
the  farmer  to  the  accustomed  methods  of  doing 
business. 

We  find  that  there  is  need  of  a  new  general 
attitude  toward  legislation,  in  the  way  of  safe- 
guarding the  farmers'  natural  rights  and  interests. 
It  is  natural  that  the  organized  and  consolidated 
interests  should  be  strongly  in  mind  in  the  making 
of  legislation.  We  recommend  that  the  welfare 
of  the  farmer  and  countryman  be  also  kept  in 
mind  in  the  construction  of  laws.  We  specially 
recommend  that  his  interests  be  considered  and 
safeguarded  in  any  new  legislation  on  the  tariff, 
on  regulation  of  railroads,  control  or  regulating 
of  corporations  and  of  speculation,  river,  swamp, 
and  forest  legislation,  and  public  health  regulation. 
At  the  present  moment,  it  is  especially  important 
that  the  farmer's  interests  be  well  considered  in 
the  revision  of  the  tariff.  One  of  the  particular 


82       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

needs  is  such  an  application  of  the  reciprocity 
principle  as  to  open  European  markets  for  our 
flour,  meats  and  live  cattle.  One  of  the  great 
economic  problems  of  our  agriculture  is  how  to 
feed  the  corn  crop  and  other  grains  profitably, 
for  it  must  be  fed  if  the  fertility  of  the  land  is  to 
be  maintained;  to  dispose  of  the  crop  profitably 
requires  the  best  markets  that  can  be  secured. 

2.  HIGHWAYS. 

The  demand  for  good  highways  is  general 
among  the  farmers  of  the  entire  United  States. 
Education  and  good  roads  are  the  two  needs 
most  frequently  mentioned  in  the  hearings. 
Highways  that  are  usable  at  all  times  of  the  year 
are  now  imperative,  not  only  for  the  marketing 
of  produce,  but  for  the  elevation  of  the  social 
and  intellectual  status  of  the  open  country,  and 
the  improvement  of  health  by^  insuring  better 
medical  and  surgical  attendance. 

The  advantages  are  so  well  understood  that 
arguments  for  better  roads  are  not  necessary  here. 
Our  respondents  are  now  concerned  largely  with 
the  methods  of  organizing  and  financing  the  work. 
With  only  unimportant  exceptions,  the  farmers 


HIGHWAYS  83 

who  have  expressed  themselves  to  us  on  this 
question  consider  that  the  federal  government  is 
fairly  under  obligation  to  aid  in  the  work. 

We  hold  that  the  development  of  a  fully 
serviceable  highway  system  is  a  matter  of  na- 
tional concern,  coordinate  with  the  development 
of  waterways  and  the  conservation  of  our  native 
resources.  It  is  absolutely  essential  to  our 
internal  development.  The  first  thing  necessary 
is  to  provide  expert  supervision  and  direction, 
and  to  develop  a  national  plan.  All  the  work 
should  be  cooperative  between  the  federal  gov- 
ernment and  the  states.  The  question  of  federal 
appropriation  for  highway  work  in  the  states  may 
well  be  held  in  abeyance  until  a  national  service 
is  provided  and  tested.  We  suggest  that  the 
United  States  government  establish  a  highway 
engineering  service,  or  equivalent  organization, 
to  be  at  the  call  of  the  states  in  working  out 
effective  and  economical  highway  systems. 

3.  SOIL  DEPLETION  AND  ITS  EFFECTS. 

A  condition  calling  for  serious  comment  is  the 
lessening  productiveness  of  the  land.  Our  farm- 
ing has  been  largely  exploitational,  consisting  of 


84       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

mining  the  virgin  fertility.  On  the  better  lands 
this  primitive  system  of  land  exploitation  may 
last  for  two  generations  without  results  perni- 
cious to  society,  but  on  the  poorer  lands  the  limit 
of  satisfactory  living  conditions  may  be  reached 
in  less  than  one  generation. 

The  social  condition  of  any  agricultural  com- 
munity is  closely  related  to  the  available  fer- 
tility of  the  soil.  "  Poor  land,  poor  people  " 
and  "  Rough  land,  rough  people,"  have  long 
since  passed  into  proverbs.  Rich  land  well 
farmed  does  not  necessarily  mean  high  ideals  or 
good  society.  It  may  mean  land-greed  and 
dollar-worship;  but  on  the  other  hand,  high 
ideals  cannot  be  realized  without  at  least  a  fair 
degree  of  prosperity,  and  this  can  not  be  secured 
without  the  maintenance  of  fertility. 

When  the  land  begins  to  yield  with  difficulty, 
the  farmer  may  move  to  new  land;  develop  a 
system  of  self-sustaining  agriculture  (becoming 
thereby  a  real  farmer) ;  or  be  driven  into  poverty 
and  degradation.  The  first  of  these  results  has 
been  marked  for  many  years,  but  it  is  now 
greatly  checked  because  most  of  the  available 
lands  have  been  occupied.  The  second  result — 


SOIL  DEPLETION  85 

the  evolution  of  a  really  scientific  and  self- 
perpetuating  agriculture — is  beginning  to  appear 
here  and  there,  mostly  in  the  long-settled  regions. 
The  drift  to  poverty  and  degradation  is  pro- 
nounced in  many  parts  of  the  country.  In  every 
region  a  certain  class  of  the  population  is  forced 
to  the  poor  lands,  becoming  a  handicap  to  the 
community  and  constituting  a  very  difficult 
social  problem. 

There  are  two  great  classes  of  farmers:  those 
who  make  farming  a  real  and  active  constructive 
business,  as  much  as  the  successful  manufacturer 
or  merchant  makes  his  effort  a  business ;  and  those 
who  merely  passively  live  on  the  land,  often 
because  they  cannot  do  anything  else,  and  by 
dint  of  hard  work  and  the  strictest  economy 
manage  to  subsist.  Each  class  has  its  difficulties. 
The  problems  of  the  former  class  are  largely 
those  arising  from  the  man's  relation  to  the  world 
at  large.  The  farmer  of  the  latter  class  is  not 
only  powerless  as  against  trade  in  general,  but 
is  also  more  or  less  helpless  in  his  own  farming 
problems.  In  applying  corrective  measures,  we 
must  recognize  these  two  classes  of  persons. 

When  no  change  of  system  has  followed  the 


86       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

depletion  of  the  virgin  fertility,  the  saddest 
results  have  followed.  The  former  owners  have 
often  lost  the  land  and  a  system  of  tenantry 
farming  has  gradually  developed.  This  is  marked 
in  all  regions  that  are  dominated  by  a  one-crop 
system  of  agriculture.  In  parts  of  the  Southern 
states  this  loss  of  available  fertility  is  specially 
noticeable,  particularly  where  cotton  is  the  main 
if  not  the  only  crop.  In  some  parts  of  the  country 
this  condition  and  the  social  results  are  pathetic, 
and  particularly  where  the  farmers,  whether 
white  or  black,  by  reason  of  poverty  and  lack  of 
credit  and  want  of  experience  in  other  kinds  of 
farming,  are  compelled  to  continue  to  grow  cot- 
ton. Large  numbers  of  Southern  farmers  are 
still  obliged  to  mortgage  their  unplanted  crop  to 
secure  the  means  of  living  while  it  is  growing; 
and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  they  pay  exorbitant 
prices  for  the  barest  necessities  of  life.  The  only 
security  that  the  man  can  give,  either  to  the 
banker  or  the  merchant,  is  cotton,  and  this 
forces  the  continued  cultivation  of  a  crop  that 
decreases  the  soil  fertility  in  a  country  of  open 
winters  where  the  waste  by  erosion  is  necessarily 
at  the  maximum.  The  tenants  have  little  interest 


SOIL  DEPLETION  87 

in  the  land  and  move  from  year  to  year  in  the 
vain  hope  of  better  luck.  The  average  income  of 
the  tenant  farmer  family  growing  cotton  is  about 
$150  a  year;  and  the  family  usually  does  not 
raise  its  poultry,  meat,  fruit,  vegetables,  or 
bread-stuffs.  The  landlords  in  large  sections  are 
little  better  off  than  the  tenants.  The  price  of  the 
product  is  manipulated  by  speculators.  The 
tenant  farmer,  and  even  the  landlord,  is  preyed 
upon  by  other  interests  and  is  practically  power- 
less. The  effect  of  the  social  stratification  into 
landlord,  tenant,  and  money-lending  merchant, 
still  further  complicates  a  situation  that  in  some 
regions  is  desperate  and  that  demands  vigorous 
treatment. 

The  recent  years  of  good  prices  for  cotton  have 
enabled  many  farmers  to  get  out  of  debt  and  to 
be  able  to  handle  their  own  business.  These 
farmers  are  then  free  to  begin  a  new  system  of 
husbandry.  The  problems  still  remain,  however, 
of  how  to  help  the  man  who  is  still  in  bondage. 

While  these  conditions  are  specially  marked 
in  the  cotton-growing  states,  they  are  arising  in 
all  regions  of  a  single-crop  system,  except, 
perhaps,  in  the  case  of  fruit  regions  and  vege- 


88       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

table  regions.  They  are  beginning  to  appear  in 
the  exclusive  wheat  regions,  where  the  yields  are 
constantly  growing  less  and  where  the  social  life 
is  usually  monotonous  and  barren.  The  hay- 
selling  system  of  many  parts  of  the  Northeastern 
states  presents  similar  results,  as  does  also  the 
exclusive  corn-grownig  for  the  general  market 
when  stock-raising  is  not  a  part  of  the  business. 
The  loss  of  fertility  in  the  Northern  states  is 
less  rapid  because  of  the  climatic  conditions  that 
arrest  the  winter  waste;  fewer  landlords,  and 
these  for  the  most  part  retired  farmers  who  live 
near  their  farms  and  largely  control  the  methods 
of  cultivating  the  land;  and  a  different  kind  of 
agriculture  and  a  different  social  structure.  It 
is,  however,  serious  enough  even  in  the  Northern 
states,  and  especially  in  the  Mississpipi  Valley, 
particularly  when  lands  are  held  as  an  investment 
by  capitalists  who  know  nothing  about  farming 
and  care  only  for  annual  returns,  and  also  when 
held  by  speculators  in  the  hope  of  harvesting  the 
unearned  increment,  which  has  been  large  of  late 
years,  due  probably  to  some  world-wide  cause, 
which  it  is  beyond  our  province  to  discuss.  In 
any  case,  whether  North  or  South,  it  has  become  a 


SOIL  DEPLETION  89 

matter  of  very  serious  concern,  whether  farmers 
are  to  continue  to  dominate  and  direct  the  policy 
of  the  people  as  they  do  now  in  large  part  in  the 
more  prosperous  agricultural  sections,  or  whether, 
because  of  soil  deterioration  they  shall  become  a 
dependent  class  or  shall  be  tenants  in  name,  but 
laborers  in  fact  and  working  for  an  uncertain 
wage. 

Fortunately  there  is  abundant  evidence  on 
every  hand,  both  North  and  South,  that  the 
fertility  of  the  soil  can  be  maintained,  or  where 
it  has  been  greatly  decreased  can  be  restored  at 
least  approximately  to  its  virgin  fertility.  The 
hope  of  the  future  lies  in  the  work  of  the  public 
institutions  that  are  devoted  to  the  new  agricul- 
ture. The  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, experiment  stations,  colleges  of  agricul- 
ture and  other  agencies  are  making  great  progress 
in  correcting  these  and  other  deficiencies,  and 
these  institutions  deserve  the  sympathetic  sup- 
port of  all  the  people.  The  demonstration  work 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  the  Southern 
states  is  a  marked  example  of  the  good  that  can 
be  done  by  teaching  the  people  how  to  diversify 
their  farming  and  to  redeem  themselves  from  the 


bondage  of  an  hereditary  system.  Similar  work 
is  needed  in  many  parts  of  the  United  States, 
and  it  is  already  under  way,  in  various  forms, 
under  the  leadership  of  the  land-grant  institu- 
tions. 

The  great  agricultural  need  of  the  open 
country  is  a  system  of  diversified  and  rotation 
farming,  carefully  adapted  in  every  case  to  the 
particular  region.  Such  systems  conserve  the 
resources  of  the  land,  and  develop  diversified 
and  active  institutions.  Nor  is  this  wastage  of 
soil  resources  peculiar  to  one-crop  systems, 
although  it  is  more  marked  in  such  cases:  it  is 
a  general  feature  of  our  agriculture  due  to  a  lack 
of  appreciation  of  our  responsibility  to  society 
to  protect  and  save  the  land.  Although  we  have 
reason  to  be  proud  of  our  agricultural  achieve- 
ments, we  must  not  close  our  eyes  to  the  fact 
that  our  soil  resources  are  still  being  lost  through 
poor  farming. 

This  lessening  of  soil  fertility  is  marked  in 
every  part  of  the  United  States,  even  in  the 
richest  lands  of  the  prairies.  It  marks  the  pioneer 
stage  of  land  usage.  It  has  now  become  an  acute 
national  danger,  and  the  economic,  social  and 


FARM  LABOR  91 

political  problems  arising  out  of  it  must  at  once 
receive  the  best  attention  of  statesmen.  The 
attention  that  has  been  given  to  these  questions 
is  wholly  inadqeuate  to  the  urgency  of  the  dan- 
gers involved. 

4.  AGRICULTURAL  LABOR. 

There  is  a  general,  but  not  a  universal,  com- 
plaint of  scarcity  of  farm  labor.  This  scarcity  is 
not  an  agricultural  difficulty  alone,  but  one 
phase  or  expression  of  the  general  labor  supply 
problem. 

So  long  as  the  United  States  continues  to  be  a 
true  democracy,  it  will  have  a  serious  labor 
problem.  As  a  democracy,  we  honor  labor,  and 
the  higher  the  efficiency  of  the  labor,  the  greater 
the  honor.  The  laborer,  if  he  has  the  ambition  to 
be  an  efficient  agent  in  the  development  of  the 
country,  will  be  anxious  to  advance  from  the 
lower  to  the  higher  forms  of  effort,  and  from 
being  a  laborer  himself  he  becomes  a  director  of 
labor.  If  he  has  nothing  but  his  hands  and 
brains,  he  aims  to  accumulate  sufficient  capital 
to  become  a  tenant,  and  eventually  to  become  the 
owner  of  a  farm  home.  A  large  number  of  our 


92       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

immigrants  share  with  the  native-born  citizen 
this  laudable  ambition.  Therefore  there  is  a 
constant  decrease  of  efficient  farm  labor  by 
these  upward  movements. 

At  the  same  time,  there  is  a  receding  column 
of  farm  owners  who,  through  bad  management, 
have  become  farm  tenants,  and  who  from  farm 
tenants  may  become  farm  laborers.  While  the 
percentage  of  this  class  is  small,  there  are  never- 
theless some  who  fail  to  make  good,  and,  if  they 
are  tenants,  farm  for  a  living  rather  than  as  a 
business,  and,  if  laborers,  become  watchers  of 
the  sun  rather  than  efficient  workers. 

(a)    STATEMENT     OF     THE    GENERAL    FARM     LABOR 
PROBLEM. 

The  farm  labor  problem,  however,  is  compli- 
cated byseveral  special  conditions,  such  as  the  fact 
that  the  need  for  labor  is  not  continuous,  the 
lack  of  conveniences  of  living  for  the  laborer, 
long  hours,  the  want  of  companionship,  and  in 
some  places  the  apparently  low  wages.  Because 
of  these  conditions,  the  necessary  drift  of  work- 
men is  from  the  open  country  to  the  town.  On 
the  part  of  the  employer,  the  problem  is  com- 


FARM  LABOR  93 

plicated  by  the  difficulty  of  securing  labor,  even 
at  the  relatively  high  prices  now  prevailing,  that 
is  competent  to  handle  modern  farm  machinery 
and  to  care  for  live-stock  and  to  handle  the 
special  work  of  the  improved  dairy.  It  is  further 
complicated  in  all  parts  of  the  country  by  the 
competition  of  railroads,  mines  and  factories, 
which,  by  reason  of  shorter  hours,  apparently 
higher  pay,  and  the  opportunities  for  social 
diversion  and  often  of  dissipation,  attract  the 
native  farm  hand  to  the  towns  and  cities. 

The  difficulty  of  securing  good  labor  is  so  great 
in  many  parts  of  the  country  that  farmers  are 
driven  to  dispose  of  their  farms,  leaving  their 
land  to  be  worked  on  shares  by  more  or  less 
irresponsible  tenants,  or  selling  them  outright, 
often  to  foreigners.  All  absentee  and  proxy 
farming  (which  seems  to  be  increasing)  creates 
serious  social  problems  in  the  regions  thus 
affected.  There  is  not  sufficient  good  labor 
available  in  the  country  to  enable  us  to  farm  our 
lands  under  present  systems  of  agriculture  and 
to  develop  our  institutions  effectively.  Our 
native  labor  supply  could  be  much  increased  by 
such  hygienic  measures  as  would  lessen  the 


94       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

unnecessary  death-rate  among  country  children 
and  insure  better  health  to  workmen. 

So  long  as  the  labor  supply  is  not  equal  to  the 
demand,  the  country  cannot  compete  with  the 
town  in  securing  labor.  The  country  must  meet 
the  essential  conditions  offered  by  the  town;  or 
change  the  kind  of  farming. 

The  most  marked  reaction  to  the  labor  diffi- 
culty is  the  change  in  modes  of  farm  management, 
whereby  farming  is  slowly  adapting  itself  to  the 
situation.  In  some  cases  this  change  is  in  the 
nature  of  more  intensive  and  business-like  meth- 
ods whereby  the  farmer  becomes  able  to  secure  a 
better  class  of  labor  and  to  employ  it  more 
continuously.  More  frequently,  however,  the 
change  is  in  the  nature  of  a  simplification  of  the 
business  and  a  less  full  and  active  farm  life.  In 
the  sod  regions  of  the  Northeast  the  tendency  is 
toward  a  simple  or  even  a  primitive  nature- 
farming,  with  the  maximum  of  grazing  and 
meadow  and  the  minimum  of  hand  labor.  In 
many  states  the  more  difficult  lands  are  being 
given  up  and  machinery-farming  is  extending. 
This  results  in  an  unequal  development  of  the 
country  as  a  whole,  with  a  marked  shift  in  the 


FARM  LABOR  95 

social  equilibrium.  The  only  real  solution  of  the 
present  labor  problem  must  lie  in  improved 
methods  of  farming.  These  improvements  will 
be  forced  by  the  inevitable  depletion  of  soil 
fertility  under  any  and  all  one-crop  systems  in 
every  part  of  the  country,  and  realized  by  the 
adoption  on  the  part  of  intelligent,  progressive 
farmers  of  a  rotation  of  crops  and  a  system  of 
husbandry  that  will  enable  them  to  employ  their 
labor  by  the  year  and  thereby  secure  a  higher 
type  of  workman  by  providing  him  a  home  with 
all  its  appurtenances.  The  development  of  local 
industries  will  also  contribute  to  the  solution  of 
the  problem. 

The  excessive  hours  of  labor  on  farms  must  be 
shortened.  This  will  come  through  the  working 
out  of  the  better  farm  scheme  just  mentioned,  and 
substituting  planning  for  some  of  the  muscular 
work.  Already  in  certain  regions  of  well-sys- 
tematized diversified  farming  the  average  hours 
of  labor  are  less  than  ten. 

There  is  a  growing  tendency  to  rely  on  for- 
eigners for  the  farm  labor  supply,  although  the 
sentiment  is  very  strong  in  some  regions  against 
immigration.  It  is.  the  general  testimony  that 


96       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

the  native  American  labor  is  less  efficient  and 
less  reliable  than  much  of  the  foreign  labor. 
This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  American  is  less 
pressed  by  the  dire  necessity  to  labor  and  to 
save,  and  because  the  better  class  of  laborers  is 
constantly  passing  on  to  land-ownership  on  its 
own  account.  Because  of  their  great  industry 
and  thrift,  certain  foreigners  are  gradually  taking 
possession  of  the  land  in  some  regions,  and  it 
seems  to  be  only  a  question  of  time  until  they  will 
drive  out  the  native  stock  in  those  regions. 

The  most  difficult  rural  labor  problem  is  that 
of  securing  household  help  on  the  average  farm. 
The  larger  the  farm,  the  more  serious  the  problem 
becomes.  The  necessity  of  giving  a  suitable 
education  to  her  children  deprives  the  farm 
woman  largely  of  home  help;  while  the  lure  of 
the  city  with  its  social  diversions,  more  regular 
hours  of  labor  and  its  supposed  higher  respecta- 
bility, deprives  her  of  help  bred  and  born  in  the 
country.  Under  these  circumstances,  she  is 
compelled  to  provide  the  food  that  requires  the 
least  labor.  This  simple  fact  explains  much  of 
the  lack  of  variety,  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest 
possible  abundance,  so  often  complained  of  on 


FARM  LABOR  97 

the  farmer's  table.  The  development  of  the 
creamery  system  over  large  sections  of  the 
country  has  relieved  the  farmer's  wife  of  a  heavy 
burden.  This  gives  the  hint  for  further  improve- 
ment. The  community  laundering  and  other 
work  could  be  done  in  an  establishment  con- 
nected with  the  creamery.  Labor-saving  ap- 
pliances in  the  future  will  greatly  lighten  the 
burdens  of  those  who  are  willing  to  use  them. 
With  the  teaching  of  home  subjects  in  the 
schools,  household  labor  will  again  become  re- 
spectable as  well  as  easier  and  more  interesting. 
There  is  widespread  conviction  that  the  farmer 
must  give  greater  attention  to  providing  good 
quarters  to  laborers  and  to  protect  them  from 
discouragement  and  from  the  saloon.  The 
shortage  of  labor  seems  to  be  the  least  marked 
where  the  laborer  is  best  cared  for.  It  is  certain 
that  farming  itself  must  be  so  modified  and 
organized  as  to  meet  the  labor  problem  at  least 
half  way.  While  all  farmers  feel  the  shortage  of 
help,  the  Commission  has  found  that  the  best 
farmers  usually  complain  least  about  the  labor 
difficulty. 


98       COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

(b)    THE  QUESTION   OF   INTEMPERANCE. 

The  liquor  question  has  been  emphasized  to 
the  Commission  in  all  parts  of  the  country  as 
complicating  the  labor  question.  It  seems  to  be 
regarded  as  a  burning  country  life  problem. 
Intemperance  is  largely  the  result  of  the  barren- 
ness of  farm  life,  particularly  of  the  lot  of  the 
hired  man.  The  Commission  has  made  no 
inquiry  into  intemperance  as  such,  but  it  is 
impressed,  from  the  testimony  that  has  ac- 
cumulated, that  drunkenness  is  often  a  very 
serious  menace  to  country  life,  and  that  the 
saloon  is  an  institution  that  must  be  banished 
from  at  least  all  country  districts  and  rural 
towns  if  our  agricultural, interests  are  to  develop 
to  the  extent  to  which  they  are  capable.  The 
evil  is  specially  damning  in  the  South  because  it 
seriously  complicates  the  race  problem.  Certain 
states  have  recently  adopted  prohibitory  regula- 
tions, but  liquor  is  shipped  into  dry  territory 
from  adjoining  regions  and  the  evil  is  thereby 
often  increased.  Dry  territories  must  rouse 
themselves  to  self-preservation  in  the  face  of 
this  grave  danger,  and  legislation  must  be 


FARM  LABOR  99 

enacted  that  will  protect  them.     When  a  state 
goes  dry,  it  should  be  allowed  to  keep  dry. 

There  is  most  urgent  need  for  a  quickened 
public  sentiment  on  this  whole  question  of 
intoxication  in  rural  communities  in  order  to 
relieve  country  life  of  one  of  its  most  threatening 
handicaps.  At  the  same  time  it  is  incumbent  on 
every  person  to  exert  his  best  effort  to  provide 
the  open  country  with  such  intellectual  and 
social  interests  as  will  lessen  the  appeal  and 
attractiveness  of  the  saloon. 

(c)  DEVOLOPING  THE  LOCAL  ATTACHMENTS  OF  THE 
FARM  LABORER. 

The  best  labor,  other  things  being  equal,  is 
resident  labor.  Such  reorganization  of  agricul- 
ture must  take  place  as  will  tend  more  and  more 
to  employ  the  man  the  year  round  and  to  tie 
him  to  the  land.  The  employer  bears  a  distinct 
responsibility  to  the  laborer,  and  also  to  society, 
to  house  him  well  and  to  help  him  to  contribute 
his  part  to  the  community  welfare. 

Eventually,  some  kind  of  school  or  training 
facilities  must  be  provided  for  the  farm  laborer, 
to  cause  him  to  develop  skill  and  to  interest  him 
intellectually  in  his  work. 


100     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

Some  kind  of  simple  saving  institution  should 
also  be  developed  in  order  to  encourage  thrift  on 
the  part  of  the  laborer.  It  would  be  well,  also, 
to  study  systems  of  life  insurance  in  reference  to 
farm  workmen.  The  establishment  of  postal 
savings  banks  should  contribute  towards  greater 
stability  of  farm  labor. 

The  development  of  various  kinds  of  coopera- 
tive buying  and  selling  associations  might  be 
expected  to  train  workmen  in  habits  of  thrift,  if 
the  men  were  encouraged  to  join  them. 

5.  HEALTH  IN  THE  OPEN  COUNTRY. 

Theoretically  the  farm  should  be  the  most 
healthful  place  in  which  to  live,  and  there  are 
numberless  farm  houses,  especially  of  the  farm- 
owner  class,  that  possess  most  excellent  modern 
sanitary  conveniences.  Still  it  is  a  fact  that  there 
are  also  numberless  other  farm  houses,  especially 
of  the  tenant  class,  and  even  numerous  rural 
school-houses,  that  do  not  have  the  rudiments  of 
sanitary  arrangement.  Health  conditions  in 
many  parts  of  the  open  country,  therefore,  are 
in  urgent  need  of  betterment.  There  are  many 
questions  of  nation-wide  importance,  such  as 


HEALTH  101 

soil,  milk  and  water  pollution;  too  much  visiting 
in  case  of  contagious  diseases;  patent  medicines, 
advertising  quacks  and  intemperance;  feeding  of 
offal  to  animals  at  Ipcal  slaughterhouses  and 
general  unsanitary  conditions  of  those  houses  not 
under  federal  or  other  rigid  sanitary  control;  in 
some  regions  unwholesome  and  poorly  prepared 
and  monotonous  diet;  lack  of  recreation;  too 
long  hours  of  work. 

Added  to  these  and  other  conditions,  are  im- 
portant regional  questions,  such  as  the  extensive 
spread  of  the  hook-worm  disease  in  the  Gulf- 
Atlantic  states;  the  prevalence  of  typhoid  fever 
and  malaria;  and  other  difficulties  due  to  neglect 
in  the  localities. 

In  general,  the  rural  population  is  less  safe- 
guarded by  boards  of  health  than  is  the  urban 
population.  The  physicians  are  farther  apart 
and  are  called  in  later  in  case  of  sickness,  and  in 
some  districts  medical  attendance  is  relatively 
more  expensive.  The  necessity  for  disease  pre- 
vention is  therefore  self-evident,  and  it  becomes 
even  more  emphatic  when  we  recall  that  infec- 
tion may  be  spread  from  farms  to  cities  in  the 
streams  and  also  in  the  milk,  meat,  and  other 


102     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

farm  products.  Quite  aside  from  the  humanita- 
rian point  of  view,  the  aggregate  annual  loss  to 
the  nation  from  unsanitary  conditions  on  the 
farms  must,  when  expressed  in  money  values, 
reach  an  enormous  sum,  and  a  betterment  of 
these  conditions  is  a  nation-wide  obligation. 

There  is  great  need  for  the  teaching  of  the 
simplest  and  commonest  laws  of  hygiene  and  sani- 
tation in  all  the  schools.  The  people  need  knowl- 
edge, and  no  traditions  should  prevent  them 
from  having  it.  How  and  what  to  eat,  the  nature 
of  disease,  the  importance  of  fresh  air,  the  neces- 
sity of  physical  training  even  on  the  farm,  the 
ineffectiveness  or  even  the  danger  of  nostrums, 
the  physical  evils  of  intemperance,  all  should  be 
known  in  some  useful  degree  to  every  boy  and 
girl  on  leaving  school. 

Some  of  the  most  helpful  work  in  improving 
rural  sanitary  conditions  and  in  relieving  suffer- 
ing, is  now  proceeding  from  women's  organiza- 
tions. This  wrork  should  be  encouraged  in  every 
way.  We  especially  commend  the  suggestion 
that  such  organizations,  and  other  interests,  pro- 
vide visiting  nurses  for  rural  communities,  when 
they  are  needed. 


HEALTH  103 

We  find  urgent  need  for  better  supervision  of 
public  health  in  rural  communities  on  the  part  of 
states  and  localities.  The  control  is  now  likely  to 
be  exercised  only  when  some  alarming  condition 
prevails.  We  think  that  the  federal  government 
should  be  given  the  right  to  send  its  health  offi- 
cers into  the  various  states  on  request  of  these 
states,  at  any  time,  for  the  purpose  of  investigat- 
ing and  controlling  public  health;  it  does  not  now 
have  this  right  except  at  quarantine  stations, 
although  it  may  attend  to  diseases  of  domestic 
animals.  It  should  also  engage  in  publicity  work 
on  this  subject. 

6.  WOMAN'S  WORK  ON  THE  FARM. 

Realizing  that  the  success  of  country  life  de- 
pends in  very  large  degree  on  the  woman's  part, 
the  Commission  has  made  special  effort  to  ascer- 
tain the  condition  of  women  on  the  farm.  Often 
this  condition  is  all  that  can  be  desired,  with 
home  duties  so  organized  that  the  labor  is  not 
excessive,  with  kindly  cooperation  on  the  part  of 
husbands  and  sons,  and  with  household  machines 
and  conveniences  well  provided.  Very  many 
farm  homes  in  all  parts  of  the  country  are  pro- 


104     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

vided  with  books  and  periodicals,  musical  instru- 
ments, and  all  the  necessary  amenities.  There 
are  good  gardens  and  attractive  premises,  and  a 
sympathetic  love  of  nature  and  of  farm  life  on 
the  part  of  the  entire  family. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  reverse  of  these  condi- 
tions often  obtains,  sometimes  because  of  pioneer 
conditions  and  more  frequently  because  of  lack 
of  prosperity  and  of  ideals.  Conveniences  for 
outdoor  work  are  likely  to  have  precedence  over 
those  for  household  work. 

The  routine  work  of  women  on  the  farm  is  to 
prepare  three  meals  a  day.  This  regularity  of 
duty  recurs  regardless  of  season,  weather,  plant- 
ing, harvesting,  social  demands,  or  any  other 
factor.  The  only  differences  in  different  seasons 
are  those  of  degree  rather  than  of  kind.  It  fol- 
lows, therefore,  that  whatever  general  hardships, 
such  as  poverty,  isolation,  lack  of  labor-saving 
devices,  may  exist  on  any  given  farm,  the  burden 
of  these  hardships  falls  more  heavily  on  the  farm- 
er's wife  than  on  the  farmer  himself.  In  gen- 
eral her  life  is  more  monotonous  and  the  more 
isolated,  no  matter  what  the  wealth  or  the  pov- 
erty of  the  family  may  be. 


WOMAN'S  WORK  105 

The  relief  to  farm  women  must  come  through 
a  general  elevation  of  country  living.  The  women 
must  have  more  helps.  In  particular,  these  mat- 
ters may  be  mentioned:  development  of  a  coop- 
erative spirit  in  the  home;  simplification  of  the 
diet  in  many  cases;  the  building  of  convenient 
and  sanitary  houses;  providing  running  water 
in  the  house,  and  also  more  mechanical  helps; 
good  and  convenient  gardens;  a  less  exclusive 
ideal  of  money-getting  on  the  part  of  the  farmer ; 
providing  better  means  of  communication,  as 
telephones,  roads,  and  reading-circles;  and  de- 
veloping of  women's  organizations.  These  and 
other  agencies  should  relieve  the  woman  of 
many  of  her  manual  burdens  on  the  one  hand, 
and  interest  her  in  outside  activities  on  the  other. 
The  farm  woman  should  have  sufficient  free  time 
and  strength  so  that  she  may  serve  the  commun- 
ity by  participating  in  its  vital  affairs. 

We  have  found  good  women's  organizations  in 
some  country  districts;  but  as  a  rule  such  organ- 
zations  are  few  or  even  none,  or,  where  they  exist, 
they  merely  radiate  from  towns.  Some  of  the 
stronger  central  organizations  are  now  pushing 
the  country  phase  of  their  work  with  vigor. 


106     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

Mothers'  clubs,  reading-clubs,  church  societies, 
home  economics  organizations,  farmers'  insti- 
tutes, and  other  associations  can  accomplish  much 
for  farm  women.  Some  of  the  regular  farmers' 
organizations  are  now  giving  much  attention  to 
domestic  subjects,  and  women  participate  freely 
in  the  meetings.  There  is  much  need  among 
country  women  themselves  of  a  stronger  organiz- 
ing sense  for  real  cooperative  betterment.  It  is 
important,  also,  that  all  rural  organizations  that 
are  attended  chiefly  by  men,  should  discuss  the 
home-making  subjects,  for  the  whole  difficulty 
often  lies  with  the  attitude  of  the  men. 

There  is  the  most  imperative  need  that  domes- 
tic, household  and  health  questions  be  taught  in 
all  schools.  The  home  may  well  be  made  the 
center  of  rural  school  teaching.  The  school  is 
capable  of  changing  the  whole  attitude  of  the  home 
life  and  the  part  that  women  should  play  in  the 
development  of  the  best  country  living. 


Ill 

THE    GENERAL    CORRECTIVE    FORCES 
THAT  SHOULD  BE   SET  IN  MOTION 

The  ultimate  need  of  the  open  country  is  the 
development  of  community  effort  and  of  social 
resources.  Here  and  there  the  Commission  has 
found  a  rural  neighborhood  in  which  the  farmers 
and  their  wives  come  together  frequently  and 
effectively  for  social  intercourse,  but  these  in- 
stances seem  to  be  infrequent  exceptions.  There 
is  a  general  lack  of  wholesome  societies  that  are 
organized  on  a  social  basis.  In  the  region  in 
which  the  Grange  is  strong,  this  need  is  best 
supplied. 

There  is  need  of  the  greatest  diversity  in  coun- 
try life  affairs,  but  there  is  equal  need  of  a  social 
cohesion  operating  among  all  these  affairs  and 
tying  them  all  together.  This  life  must  be  de- 
veloped, as  we  have  said,  directly  from  native 
or  resident  forces.  It  is  neither  necessary  nor 


108      COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

desirable  that  an  exclusive  hamlet  system 
be  brought  about  in  order  to  secure  these  ends. 
The  problem  before  the  Commission  is  to  sug- 
gest means  whereby  this  development  may  be 
directed  and  hastened  directly  from  the  land. 

The  social  disorder  is  usually  unrecognized. 
If  only  the  farms  are  financially  profitable,  the 
rural  condition  is  commonly  pronounced  good. 
Country  life  must  be  made  thoroughly  attractive 
and  satisfying  as  well  as  remunerative,  and  able 
to  hold  the  center  of  interest  throughout  one's 
lifetime.  With  most  persons  this  can  come  only 
with  the  development  of  a  strong  community 
sense  or  feeling.  The  first  condition  of  a  good 
country  life,  of  course,  is  good  and  profitable 
farming.  The  farmer  must  be  enabled  to  live 
comfortably.  Much  attention  has  been  given  to 
better  farming,  and  the  progress  of  a  generation 
has  been  marked.  Small  manufacture  and  bet- 
ter handicrafts  need  now  to  receive  attention, 
for  the  open  country  needs  new  industries  and 
new  interests.  The  schools  must  help  to  bring 
these  things  about. 

The  economic  and  industrial  questions  are,  of 
course,  of  prime  importance,  and  we  have  dealt 


COHESION  NEEDFUL  109 

with  them;  but  they  must  all  be  studied  in  their 
relations  to  the  kind  of  life  that  should  ultimately 
be  established  in  rural  communities.  The  Com- 
mission will  fail  of  its  purpose  if  it  confines  itself 
merely  to  providing  remedies  or  correctives  for 
the  present  and  apparent  troubles  of  the  farmer, 
however  urgent  and  important  these  troubles 
may  be.  All  these  matters  must  be  conceived  of 
as  incidents  or  parts  in  a  large  constructive  pro- 
gram. We  must  begin  a  campaign  for  rural 
progress. 

To  this  end,  local  government  must  be  de- 
veloped to  its  highest  point  of  efficiency,  and  all 
agencies  that  are  capable  of  furthering  a  better 
country  life  must  be  federated.  It  will  be  neces- 
sary to  set  the  resident  forces  in  motion  by 
means  of  outside  agencies,  or  at  least  to  direct 
them,  if  we  are  to  secure  the  best  results.  It  is 
specially  necessary  to  develop  the  cooperative 
spirit,  whereby  all  people  participate  and  all  be- 
come partakers. 

The  cohesion  that  is  so  marked  among  the  dif- 
ferent classes  of  farm  folk  in  older  countries 
cannot  be  reasonably  expected  at  this  period  in 
American  development.  Nor  is  it  desirable  that 


110     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

a  stratified  society  should  be  developed  in  this 
country.  We  have  here  no  remnants  of  a  feudal 
system,  fortunately  no  system  of  entail,  and  no 
clearly  drawn  distinction  between  agricultural 
and  other  classes.  We  are  as  yet  a  new  country 
with  undeveloped  resources,  many  far-away  pas- 
tures, which,  as  is  well  known,  are  always  green 
and  inviting.  Our  farmers  have  been  moving 
and  numbers  of  them  have  not  yet  become  so  well 
settled  as  to  speak  habitually  of  their  farm  as 
"home."  We  have  farmers  from  every  European 
nation  and  with  every  phase  of  religious  belief 
often  grouped  in  large  communities,  naturally 
drawn  together  by  a  common  language  and  a 
common  faith,  and  yielding  but  slowly  to  the 
dominating  and  controlling  forces  of  American 
farm  life.  Even  where  there  was  once  social 
organization,  as  in  the  New  England  town  (or 
township),  the  competition  of  the  newly  settled 
West  and  the  wonderful  development  of  urban 
civilization  have  disintegrated  it.  The  middle- 
aged  farmer  of  the  central  states  sells  the  old 
homestead  without  much  hesitation  or  regret 
and  moves  westward  to  find  a  greater  acreage 
for  his  sons  and  daughters.  The  farmer  of  the 


INDIVIDUALISM  111 

middle  west  sells  the  old  home  and  moves  to  the 
mountain  states,  to  the  Pacific  Coast,  to  the 
South,  to  Mexico,  or  to  Canada. 

Even  when  permanently  settled,  the  farmer 
does  not  easily  combine  with  others  for  financial 
or  social  betterment.  The  training  of  genera- 
tions has  made  him  a  strong  individualist,  and  he 
has  been  obliged  to  rely  mainly  on  himself.  Self- 
reliance  being  the  essence  of  his  nature,  he  does 
not  at  once  feel  the  need  of  cooperation  for  busi- 
ness purposes  or  of  close  association  for  social 
objects.  In  the  main,  he  has  been  prosperous, 
and  has  not  felt  the  need  of  cooperation.  If  he 
is  a  strong  man,  he  prefers  to  depend  on  his  own 
ability.  If  he  is  ambitious  for  social  recognition, 
he  usually  prefers  the  society  of  the  town  to  that 
of  the  country.  If  he  wishes  to  educate  his  chil- 
dren, he  avails  himself  of  the  schools  of  the  city. 
He  does  not  as  a  rule  dream  of  a  rural  organiza- 
tion that  can  supply  as  completely  as  the  city 
the  four  great  requirements  of  man — health, 
education,  occupation,  society.  While  his  brother 
in  the  city  is  striving  by  moving  out  of  the  busi- 
ness section  into  the  suburbs  to  get  as  much  as 
possible  of  the  country  in  the  city,  he  does  not 


112     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

dream  that  it  is  possible  to  have  most  that  is  best 
of  the  city  in  the  country. 

The  time  has  come  when  we  must  give  as  much 
attention  to  the  constructive  development  of  the 
open  country  as  we  have  given  to  other  affairs. 
This  is  necessary  not  only  in  the  interest  of  the 
open  country  itself,  but  for  the  safety  and  prog- 
ress of  the  nation. 

It  is  impossible,  of  course,  to  suggest  remedies 
for  all  the  shortcomings  of  country  life.  The 
mere  statement  of  the  conditions,  as  we  find 
them,  ought  of  itself  to  challenge  attention  to 
the  needs.  We  hope  that  this  report  of  the  Com- 
mission will  accelerate  all  the  movements  that 
are  now  in  operation  for  the  betterment  of  coun- 
try life.  Many  of  these  movements  are  beyond 
the  reach  of  legislation.  The  most  important 
thing  for  the  Commission  to  do  is  to  apprehend 
the  problem  and  to  state  the  conditions. 

The  philosophy  of  the  situation  requires  that 
the  disadvantages  and  handicaps  that  are  not  a 
natural  part  of  the  farmer's  business  shall  be  re- 
moved, and  that  such  forces  shall  be  encouraged 
and  set  in  motion  as  will  stimulate  and  direct 
local  initiative  and  leadership. 


RECONSTRUCTIVE  ACTION  113 

The  situation  calls  for  concerted  action.  It 
must  be  aroused  and  energized.  The  remedies 
are  of  many  kinds  and  they  must  come  slowly. 
We  need  a  redirection  of  thought  to  bring  about 
a  new  atmosphere,  and  a  new  social  and  intellec- 
tual contact  with  life.  This  means  that  the  habits 
of  the  people  must  change.  The  change  will  come 
gradually,  of  course,  as  a  result  of  new  leader- 
ship; and  the  situation  must  develop  its  own 
leaders. 

Care  must  be  taken  in  all  the  reconstructive 
work  to  see  that  local  initiative  is  relied  on  to 
the  fullest  extent,  and  that  federal  and  even  state 
agencies  do  not  perform  what  might  be  done  by 
the  people  in  the  communities.  The  centralized 
agencies  should  be  stimulative  and  directive, 
rather  than  mandatory  and  formal.  Every  effort 
must  be  made  to  develop  native  resources  not 
only  of  material  things  but  also  of  people. 

It  is  necessary  to  be  careful,  also,  not  to  copy 
too  closely  the  reconstructive  methods  that  have 
been  so  successful  in  Europe.  Our  conditions 
and  problems  differ  widely  from  theirs.  We 
have  no  historical  social  peasantry,  a  much  less 
centralized  form  of  government,  unlike  systems 


114      COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

of  land  occupancy,  wholly  different  farming 
schemes  and  different  economic  and  social  sys- 
tems. Our  country  necessities  are  peculiarly 
American. 

The  correctives  for  the  social  sterility  of  the 
xopen  country  are  already  in  existence  or  under 
way,  but  these  agencies  all  need  to  be  strength- 
ened and  especially  to  be  coordinated  and  feder- 
ated; and  the  problem  needs  to  be  recognized  by 
all  the  people.  The  regular  agricultural  depart- 
ments and  institutions  are  aiding  in  making 
farming  profitable  and  attractive,  and  they  are 
also  giving  attention  to  the  social  and  community 
questions.  There  is  a  widespread  awakening,  as 
a  result  of  this  work.  This  awakening  is  greatly 
aided  by  the  rural  free  delivery  of  mails,  tele- 
phones, the  gradual  improvement  of  highways, 
farmers'  institutes,  cooperative  creameries  and 
similar  organizations,  and  other  agencies. 

The  good  institutions  of  cities  may  often  be 
applied  or  extended  to  the  open  country.  It 
appears  that  the  social  evils  are  in  many  cases  no 
greater  in  cities  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
people  than  in  country  districts;  and  the  very 
concentration  of  numbers  draws  attention  to 


SPECIAL  EFFORTS  115 

the  evils  in  cities  and  leads  to  earlier  application 
of  remedies.  Recently  much  attention  has  been 
directed,  for  example,  to  the  subject  of  juvenile 
crime,  and  the  probation  system  in  place  of  jail 
sentences  for  young  offenders  is  being  put  into 
operation  in  many  places.  Petty  crime  and  im- 
morality are  certainly  not  lacking  in  rural  dis- 
tricts, and  it  would  seem  that  there  is  a  place 
for  the  extension  of  the  probation  system  to 
towns  and  villages. 

Aside  from  the  regular  churches,  schools  and 
agricultural  societies,  there  are  special  organiza- 
tions that  are  now  extending  their  work  to  the 
open  country,  and  others  that  could  readily  be 
adapted  to  country  work.  One  of  the  most 
promising  of  these  newer  agencies  is  the  rural 
library  that  is  interested  in  its  community.  The 
libraries  are  increasing,  and  they  are  developing 
a  greater  sense  of  responsibility  to  the  commun- 
ity, not  only  stimulating  the  reading  habit  and 
directing  it,  but  becoming  social  centers  for  the 
neighborhood.  A  library,  if  provided  with  suit- 
able rooms,  can  afford  a  convenient  meeting- 
place  for  many  kinds  of  activities  and  thereby 
serve  as  a  coordinating  influence.  Study  clubs 


116     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

and  travelling  libraries  may  become  parts  of  it. 
This  may  mean  that  the  library  will  need  itself 
to  be  redirected,  so  that  it  will  become  an  active 
rather  than  a  passive  agency;  it  must  be  much 
more  than  a  collection  of  books. 

Another  new  agency  is  the  county  work  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  which,  by 
placing  in  each  county  a  field  secretary,  is  seek- 
ing to  promote  the  solidarity  and  effectiveness 
of  rural  social  life,  and  to  extend  the  larger  in- 
fluence of  the  country  church.  The  Commission 
has  met  the  representatives  of  this  county  work 
at  the  hearings,  and  is  impressed  with  the  pur- 
pose of  the  movement  to  act  as  a  coordinating 
agency  in  rural  life. 

The  organizations  in  cities  and  towns  that  are 
now  beginning  to  agitate  the  development  of 
better  play,  recreation  and  entertainment  offer 
a  suggestion  for  country  districts.  It  is  impor- 
tant that  recreation  be  made  a  feature  of  country 
life,  but  we  consider  it  to  be  important  that  this 
recreation,  games  and  entertainment,  be  devel- 
oped as  far  as  possible  from  native  sources 
rather  than  to  be  transplanted  as  a  kind  of  theat- 
ricals from  exotic  sources. 


IMPROVEMENT  HAS  BEGUN          117 

Other  organizations  that  are  helping  the  coun- 
try social  life,  or  that  might  be  made  to  help  it, 
are  women's  clubs,  musical  clubs,  reading-clubs, 
athletic  and  playground  associations,  historical 
and  literary  societies,  local  business  men's  organi- 
zations and  chambers  of  commerce,  all  genuinely 
cooperative  business  societies,  civic  and  village 
improvement  societies,  local  political  organiza- 
tions, granges  and  other  fraternal  organizations, 
and  all  groups  that  associate  with  the  church 
and  school. 

There  is  every  indication,  therefore,  that  the 
social  life  of  the  open  country  is  in  process  of 
improvement,  although  the  progress  at  the  pres- 
ent moment  has  not  been  great.  The  leaders 
need  to  be  encouraged  by  an  awakened  public 
sentiment  and  all  the  forces  should  be  so  related 
to  each  other  as  to  increase  their  total  effective- 
ness while  not  interfering  with  the  autonomy  of 
any  of  them. 

The  proper  correctives  of  the  underlying 
structural  deficiencies  of  the  open  country  are 
knowledge,  education,  cooperative  organizations, 
and  personal  leadership.  These  we  may  now  dis- 
cuss in  more  detail. 


118     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

7.  NEED  OF  AGRICULTURAL  OR  COUNTRY  LIFE 
SURVEYS. 

The  time  has  now  come  when  we  should  know 
in  detail  what  our  agricultural  resources  are.  We 
have  long  been  engaged  in  making  geological 
surveys,  largely  with  a  view  to  locating  our  miner- 
eral  wealth.  The  country  has  been  explored  and 
mapped.  The  main  native  resources  have  been 
located  in  a  general  way.  We  must  now  know 
what  are  the  capabilities  of  every  agricultural 
locality,  for  agriculture  is  the  basis  of  our  pros- 
perity and  farming  is  always  a  local  business. 
We  cannot  make  the  best  and  most  permanent 
progress  in  the  developing  of  a  good  country  life 
until  we  have  completed  a  very  careful  inventory 
of  the  entire  country. 

This  inventory  or  census  should  take  into 
account  the  detailed  topography  and  soil  con- 
ditions of  the  localities,  the  local  climate,  the 
whole  character  of  streams  and  forests,  the  agri- 
cultural products,  the  cropping  systems  now  in 
practice,  the  conditions  of  highways,  markets, 
facilities  in  the  way  of  transportation  and  com- 
munication, the  institutions  and  organizations, 
the  adaptability  of  the  neighborhood  to  the  es- 


SURVEYS  119 

tablishment  of  handicrafts  and  local  industries, 
the  general  economic  and  social  status  of  the 
people  and  the  character  of  the  people  themselves, 
natural  attractions  and  disadvantages,  historical 
data,  and  a  collation  of  community  experience. 
This  would  result  in  the  collection  of  local  fact, 
on  which  we  could  proceed  to  build  a  scientifi- 
cally and  economically  sound  country  life. 

Beginnings  have  been  made  in  several  states 
in  the  collection  of  these  geographical  facts, 
mostly  in  connection  with  the  land-grant  col- 
leges. The  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture is  beginning  by  means  of  soil  surveys, 
study  of  farm  management  and  other  investi- 
gations; and  its  demonstration  work  in  the  South- 
ern states  is  in  part  of  this  character.  These 
agencies  are  beginning  the  study  of  conditions  in 
the  localities  themselves.  It  is  a  kind  of  exten- 
sion work.  All  these  agencies  are  doing  good 
work;  but  we  have  not  yet  as  a  people  come  to  an 
appreciation  of  the  fact  that  we  must  take  ac- 
count of  stock  in  detail  as  well  as  in  the  large. 
We  are  working  mostly  around  the  edges  of  the 
problem,  and  feeling  of  it.  The  larger  part  of 
the  responsibility  of  this  work  must  lie  with  the 


120      COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

different  states,  for  they  should  develop  their 
internal  resources.  The  whole  work  should  be 
coordinated,  however,  by  federal  agencies  acting 
with  the  states,  and  some  of  the  larger  relations 
will  need  to  be  studied  directly  by  the  federal 
government  itself.  We  must  come  to  a  thoroughly 
nationalized  movement  to  understand  what  prop- 
erty we  have  and  what  uses  may  best  be  made 
of  it.  This  in  time  will  call  for  large  appropria- 
tions by  state  and  nation. 

In  estimating  our  natural  resources,  we  must 
not  forget  the  value  of  scenery.  This  is  a  dis- 
tinct asset,  and  it  will  be  more  recognized  as 
time  goes  on.  It  will  be  impossible  to  develop  a 
satisfactory  country  life  without  conserving  all 
the  beauty  of  landscape,  and  developing  the 
people  to  the  point  of  appreciating  it.  In  parts 
of  the  East,  a  regular  system  of  parking  the  open 
country  of  the  entire  state  is  already  begun,  con- 
structing the  roads,  preserving  the  natural  feat- 
ures and  developing  the  latent  beauty  in  such  a 
way  that  the  whole  country  becomes  part  of  one 
continuing  landscape  treatment.  This  in  no  way 
interferes  with  the  agricultural  utilization  of  the 
land,  but  rather  increases  it.  The  scenery  is  in 


EDUCATION  121 

fact,  capitalized,  so  that  it  adds  to  the  property 
values  and  contributes  to  local  patriotism  and  to 
the  thrift  of  the  commonwealth. 

8.  NEED  OF  A  REDIRECTED  EDUCATION. 

The  subject  of  paramount  importance  in  our 
correspondence  and  in  the  hearings  is  education. 
In  every  part  of  the  United  States  there  seems  to 
be  one  mind,  on  the  part  of  those  capable  of 
judging,  on  the  necessity  of  redirecting  the  rural 
schools.  There  is  no  such  unanimity  on  any  other 
subject.  It  is  remarkable  with  what  similarity 
of  phrase  the  subject  has  been  discussed  in  all 
parts  of  the  country  before  the  Commission. 
Everywhere  there  is  a  demand  that  education 
have  relation  to  living,  that  the  schools  should 
express  the  daily  life,  and  that  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts they  should  educate  by  means  of  agri- 
culture and  country  life  subjects.  It  is  recog- 
nized that  all  difficulties  resolve  themselves  in 
the  end  into  a  question  of  education. 

The  schools  are  held  to  be  largely  responsible 
for  ineffective  farming,  lack  of  ideals,  and  the 
drift  to  town.  This  is  not  because  the  rural 
schools,  as  a  whole,  are  declining,  but  because 


122     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

they  are  in  a  state  of  arrested  development  and 
have  not  yet  put  themselves  in  consonance  with 
all  the  recently  changed  conditions  of  life.  The 
very  forces  that  have  built  up  the  city  and  town 
school  have  caused  the  neglect  of  the  country 
school.  It  is  probable  that  the  farming  popula- 
tion will  willingly  support  better  schools  as  soon 
as  it  becomes  convinced  that  the  schools  will 
really  be  changed  in  such  a  way  as  to  teach  per- 
sons how  to  live. 

The  country  communities  are  in  need  of  social 
centers, — places  where  persons  may  naturally 
meet,  and  where  a  real  neighborhood  interest 
exists.  There  is  difference  of  opinion  as  to  where 
this  center  should  be,  some  persons  thinking  it 
should  be  in  the  town  or  village,  others  the  library, 
others  the  church  or  school  or  grange  hall.  It  is 
probable  that  more  than  one  social  center  should 
develop  in  large  and  prosperous  communities. 
Inasmuch  as  the  school  is  supported  by  public 
funds  and  is  therefore  an  institution  connected 
with  the  government  of  the  community,  it  should 
form  a  natural  organic  center.  If  the  school  de- 
velops such  a  center,  it  must  concern  itself 
directly  with  the  interests  of  the  people.  It  is 


SCHOOLS  123 

difficult  to  make  people  understand  what  this 
really  means,  for  school-teaching  is  burdened 
with  tradition.  The  school  must  express  the 
best  cooperation  of  all  social  and  economic  forces 
that  make  for  the  welfare  of  the  community. 
Merely  to  add  new  studies  will  not  meet  the  need, 
although  it  may  break  the  ground  for  new  ideas. 
The  school  must  be  fundamentally  redirected, 
until  it  becomes  a  new  kind  of  institution.  This 
will  require  that  the  teacher  himself  be  a  part  of 
the  community  and  not  a  migratory  factor. 

The  feeling  that  agriculture  must  color  the 
work  of  rural  public  schools  is  beginning  to  ex- 
press itself  in  the  interest  in  nature-study,  in  the 
introduction  of  classes  in  agriculture  in  high- 
•th««l«  »»«i  tlccwktrt,  a»d  im  the  t »t «]»li«Vi m»»i 
of  separate  or  special  schools  to  teach  farm  and 
home  subjects.  These  agencies  will  help  to  bring 
about  the  complete  reconstruction  of  which  we 
have  been  speaking.  It  is  specially  important 
that  we  make  the  most  of  the  existing  public 
school  system,  for  it  is  this  very  system  that 
should  serve  the  real  needs  of  the  people.  The 
real  needs  of  the  people  are  not  alone  the  arts  by 
which  they  make  a  living,  but  the  whole  range 


124     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

of  their  customary  activities.  As  the  home  is 
the  center  of  our  civilization,  so  the  home  sub- 
jects should  be  the  center  of  every  school. 

The  most  necessary  thing  now  to  be  done  for 
public  school  education  in  terms  of  country  life 
is  to  rouse  all  the  people  to  the  necessity  of  such 
education,  to  coordinate  the  forces  that  are  be- 
ginning to  operate,  and  to  project  the  work 
beyond  the  schools  for  youth  into  continuation 
schools  for  adults.  The  schools  must  represent 
and  express  the  community  in  which  they  stand, 
although,  of  course,  they  should  not  be  confined 
to  the  community.  They  should  teach  health 
and  sanitation,  even  if  it  is  necessary  to  modify 
the  customary  teaching  of  physiology.  The  teach- 
ing should  be  visual,  direct  and  applicable.  Of 
course,  the  whole  tendency  of  the  schools  will  be 
ethical  if  they  teach  the  vital  subjects  truthfully; 
but  particular  care  should  be  taken  that  they 
stand  for  the  morals  of  the  pupils  and  of  the 
communities. 

We  find  a  general  demand  for  federal  encour- 
agement in  educational  propaganda,  to  be  in 
some  way  cooperative  with  the  states.  The 
people  realize  that  the  incubus  of  ignorance 


EDUCATIONAL  ACTIVITY  125 

and  inertia  is  so  heavy  and  so  widespread  as  to 
constitute  a  national  danger,  and  that  it  should 
be  removed  as  rapidly  as  possible.  It  will  be 
increasingly  necessary  for  the  national  and  state 
governments  to  cooperate  to  bring  about  the 
results  that  are  needed  in  agricultural  and  other 
industrial  education. 

The  consideration  of  the  educational  problem 
raises  the  greatest  single  question  that  has  come 
before  the  Commission,  and  which  the  Commis- 
sion has  to  place  before  the  American  people. 
Education  has  now  come  to  have  vastly  more 
significance  than  the  mere  establishing  and  main- 
taining of  schools.  The  education  motive  has 
been  taken  into  all  kinds  of  work  with  the  people, 
directly  in  their  homes  and  on  their  farms,  and 
it  reaches  mature  persons  as  well  as  youths. 
Beyond  and  behind  all  educational  work  there 
must  be  an  aroused  intelligent  public  sentiment; 
to  make  this  sentiment  is  the  most  important 
work  immediately  before  us.  The  whole  country 
is  alive  with  educational  activity.  While  this 
activity  may  all  be  good,  it  nevertheless  needs  to 
be  directed  and  correlated,  and  all  the  agencies 
should  be  more  or  less  federated. 


126     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

The  arousing  of  the  people  must  be  accom- 
plished in  terms  of  their  daily  lives,  or  of  their 
welfare.  For  the  country  people  this  means  that 
it  must  be  largely  in  terms  of  agriculture.  Some 
of  the  colleges  of  agriculture  are  now  doing  this 
kind  of  work  effectively,  although  on  a  pitiably 
small  scale  as  compared  with  the  needs.  This  is 
extension  work,  by  which  is  meant  all  kinds  of 
educational  effort  directly  with  the  people,  both 
old  and  young,  at  their  homes  and  on  their  farms; 
it  comprises  all  educational  work  that  is  con- 
ducted away  from  the  institution  and  for  those 
who  cannot  go  to  schools  and  colleges.  The  best 
extension  work  now  proceeding  in  this  country— 
if  measured  by  the  effort  to  reach  the  people  in 
their  homes  and  on  their  own  ground — is  that 
coming  from  some  of  the  colleges  of  agriculture 
and  the  United  States  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture. Within  the  last  five  or  ten  years,  the  col- 
leges of  agriculture  have  been  able  to  attack  the 
problem  of  rural  life  in  a  new  way.  This  exten- 
sion work  includes  such  efforts  as  local  agricul- 
tural surveys,  demonstrations  on  farms,  nature- 
study  and  other  work  in  schools,  boys'  and  girls' 
clubs  of  many  kinds,  crop  organizations,  redirec- 


EXTENSION  WORK  127 

tion  of  rural  societies,  reading-clubs,  library 
extension,  lectures,  travelling-schools,  farmers' 
institutes,  inspections  of  herds,  barns,  crops, 
orchards  and  farms,  publications  of  many  kinds, 
and  similar  educational  effort  directly  in  the 
field. 

To  accomplish  these  ends,  we  suggest  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  nation-wide  extension  work. 
The  first  or  original  work  of  the  agricultural 
branches  of  the  land-grant  colleges  was  academic 
in  the  old  sense;  later  there  was  added  the  great 
field  of  experiment  and  research;  there  now 
should  be  added  the  third  coordinate  branch, 
comprising  extension  work,  without  which  no 
college  of  agriculture  can  adequately  serve  its 
state.  It  is  to  the  extension  department  of  these 
colleges,  if  properly  conducted,  that  we  must 
now  look  for  the  most  effective  rousing  of  the 
people  on  the  land. 

In  order  that  all  public  educational  work  in  the 
United  States  may  be  adequately  studied  and 
guided,  we  also  recommend  that  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education  be  enlarged  and  sup- 
ported in  such  a  way  that  it  will  really  represent 
the  educational  activities  of  the  nation,  becom- 


128     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

ing  a  clearing-house,  and  a  collecting,  distribut- 
ing and  investigating  organization.  It  is  now 
wholly  inadequate  to  accomplish  these  ends.  In 
a  country  in  which  education  is  said  to  be  the 
national  religion,  this  condition  of  our  one  ex- 
pressly federal  educational  agency  is  pathetic. 
The  good  use  already  made  of  the  small  appro- 
priations provided  for  the  Bureau,  shows  clearly 
hat  it  can  render  a  most  important  service  ift 
sufficient  funds  are  made  available  for  its  use. 

9.  NECESSITY  OF  WORKING  TOGETHER. 

It  is  of  the  greatest  consequence  that  the 
people  of  the  open  country  should  learn  to  work 
together,  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  forwarding 
their  economic  interests  and  of  competing  with 
other  men  who  are  organized,  but  also  to  develop 
themselves  and  to  establish  an  effective  com- 
munity spirit.  This  effort  should  be  a  genuinely 
cooperative  or  common  effort  in  which  all  the 
associated  persons  have  a  voice  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  organization  and  share  proportion- 
ately in  its  benefits.  Many  of  the  so-called  "co- 
operative" organizations  are  really  not  such, 
for  they  are  likely  to  be  controlled  in  the  interest 


CO-OPERATION  129 

of  a  few  persons  rather  than  for  all  and  with  no 
thought  of  the  good  of  the  community  at  large. 
Some  of  the  societies  that  are  cooperative  in 
Dame  are  really  strong  centralized  corporations 
or  stock  companies  that  have  no  greater  interest 
in  the  welfare  of  the  patrons  than  other  corpo- 
rations have. 

At  present  the  cooperative  spirit  works  itself 
out  chiefly  in  business  organizations,  devoted  to 
selling  and  buying.  So  far  as  possible,  these 
business  organizations  should  have  more  or  less 
social  uses;  but  even  if  the  organizations  cannot 
be  so  used,  the  growth  of  the  cooperative  spirit 
should  of  itself  have  great  social  value,  and  it 
should  give  the  hint  for  other  cooperating 
groups.  There  is  great  need  of  associations  in 
which  persons  cooperate  directly  for  social  re- 
sults. The  primary  cooperation  is  social  and 
should  arise  in  the  home,  between  all  members 
of  the  family. 

The  associations  that  have  an  educational 
purpose  are  very  numerous,  such  as  the  common 
agricultural  societies  and  clubs  devoted  to  stock- 
raising,  fruit-growing,  grain-growing,  poultry- 
keeping,  floriculture,  bee-culture,  and  the  like, 


130     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

mostly  following  the  lines  of  occupation.  These 
are  scarcely  truly  cooperative,  since  they  usually 
do  not  effect  a  real  organization  to  accomplish  a 
definite  end,  and  they  may  meet  only  once  or 
twice  a  year;  they  hold  conventions,  but  usually 
do  not  maintain  a  continuous  activity.  These 
societies  are  the  greatest  benefit,  however,  and 
they  have  distinct  social  value.  No  doubt  a 
great  many  of  them  could  be  so  reorganized  or 
developed  as  to  operate  continuously  through- 
out the  year  and  become  truly  cooperative  in 
effort,  thereby  greatly  increasing  their  influence 
and  importance. 

A  few  great  farmers'  organizations  have  in- 
cluded in  their  declarations  of  purposes  the  whole 
field  of  social,  educational  and  economic  work. 
Of  such,  of  national  scope,  are  Patrons  of  Hus- 
bandry and  the  Farmers'  Union.  These  and 
similar  large  societies  are  effective  in  proportion 
as  they  maintain  local  branches  that  work  toward 
specific  ends  in  their  communities. 

While  there  are  very  many  excellent  agricul- 
tural cooperative  organizations  of  many  kinds, 
the  farmers  nearly  everywhere  complain  that 
there  is  still  a  great  dearth  of  association  that 


CO-OPERATION  131 

really  helps  them  in  buying  and  selling  and  de- 
veloping their  communities.  Naturally,  the 
effective  cooperative  groups  are  in  the  most 
highly  developed  communities;  the  general  farmer 
is  yet  insufficiently  helped  by  the  societies. 
The  need  is  not  so  much  for  a  greater  number  of 
societies  as  for  a  more  complete  organization 
within  them  and  for  a  more  continuous  active 
work. 

Farmers  seem  to  be  increasingly  feeling  the 
pressure  of  the  organized  interests  that  sell  to 
them  and  buy  from  them.  They  complain  of 
business  understandings  or  agreements  between 
all  dealers  from  the  wholesaler  and  jobber  to  the 
remote  country  merchants,  that  prevent  farmers 
and  their  organizations  from  doing  an  indepen- 
dent business. 

The  greatest  pressure  on  the  farmer  is  felt  in 
regions  of  undiversified  one-crop  farming.  Under 
such  conditions,  he  is  subject  to  great  risk  of 
crop  failure;  his  land  is  soon  reduced  in  produc- 
tiveness; he  usually  does  not  raise  his  home  sup- 
plies, and  is  therefore  dependent  on  the  store 
for  his  living;  and  his  crop,  being  a  staple  and 
produced  in  enormous  quantities,  is  subject  to 


132     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

world  prices  and  to  speculation,  so  that  he  has 
no  personal  market.  In  the  exclusive  cotton 
and  wheat  regions,  the  hardships  of  the  farmer 
and  the  monotony  of  rural  life  are  usually  very 
marked.  Similar  conditions  are  likely  to  obtain 
in  large-area  stock-ranging,  hay-raising,  tobacco- 
growing  and  the  like.  In  such  regions,  great 
discontent  is  likely  to  prevail  and  economic 
heresies  to  breed.  The  remedy  is  diversification 
in  farming  on  the  one  hand,  and  organization  on 
the  other. 

The  Commission  has  found  many  organiza- 
tions that  seem  to  be  satisfactorily  handling 
the  transporting,  distributing  and  marketing 
of  farm  products.  They  are  often  incorporated 
stock  companies  in  which  the  cooperators  have 
the  spur  of  money  investment  to  hold  them  to 
their  mutual  obligations.  In  nearly  all  cases, 
the  most  successful  organizations  are  in  regions 
that  are  strongly  dominated  by  similar  products, 
as  fruit,  dairy,  grain,  or  live-stock. 

Two  principles  may  be  applied  in  these  busi- 
ness societies :  in  one  class,  the  organization  is  in  the 
nature  of  a  combination,  and  attempts  to  estab- 
lish prices  and  perhaps  to  control  the  production; 


CO-OPERATION  133 

in  the  other  class,  the  organization  seeks  its  re- 
sults by  studying  and  understanding  the  natural 
laws  of  trade  and  taking  advantage  of  conditions 
and  regulating  such  evils  as  may  arise,  in  the 
same  spirit  as  a  merchant  studies  them,  or  as  a 
good  farmer  understands  the  natural  laws  of 
fertility. 

With  some  crops,  notably  cotton  and  the  grains, 
it  is  advantageous  to  provide  cooperative  ware- 
houses in  which  the  grower  may  hold  his  products 
till  prices  rise ;  and  also  in  which  scientific  systems 
of  grading  of  the  products  may  be  introduced. 
In  certain  fruit  regions,  community  packing- 
houses have  proved  to  be  of  the  greatest  benefit. 
In  the  meantime  the  cotton  or  grain  in  the  ware- 
house becomes,  for  business  purposes,  practically 
as  good  as  cash  (subject  to  charge  for  insurance) 
in  the  form  of  negotiable  warehouse  receipts. 
This  form  of  handling  products  is  now  coming 
to  be  well  understood,  and,  combined  with  good 
systems  of  farming,  it  is  capable  of  producing 
most  satisfactory  results. 

Organized  effort  must  come  as  the  voluntary 
expression  of  the  people;  but  it  is  essential  that 
every  state  should  enact  laws  that  will  stimulate 


134     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

and  facilitate  the  organization  of  such  coopera- 
tive associations,  care  being  taken  that  the  work- 
ing of  the  laws  be  not  cumbersome.  These  laws 
should  provide  the  association  with  every  legal 
facility  for  the  transaction  of  the  business  in 
which  they  are  to  engage.  They  are  as  impor- 
tant to  the  state  as  other  organizations  of  capital, 
and  should  be  fostered  with  as  much  care,  and 
their  members  and  patrons  be  adequately  safe- 
guarded. It  is  especially  important  that  these 
organizations  be  granted  all  the  powers  and  ad- 
vantages given  to  corporations  or  other  aggrega- 
tions of  capital,  to  the  end  that  they  may  meet 
these  corporations  on  equal  legal  ground  when 
it  is  necessary  to  compete  with  them.  Such  laws 
should  not  only  protect  the  cooperative  societies, 
but  should  provide  means  that  will  allow  the 
societies  to  regulate  themselves,  so  that  they 
may  be  safeguarded  from  becoming  merely  com- 
mercial organizations  through  the  purchase  or 
control  of  the  stock  by  dealers  in  the  products 
that  they  handle.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  fed- 
eral laws  may  also  be  needed  to  encourage  co- 
operation. 

Organized  associative  effort  may  take  on  spe- 


CO-OPERATION  135 

cial  forms.  It  is  probable,  for  example,  that 
cooperation  to  secure  and  to  employ  farm  labor 
would  be  helpful.  It  may  have  for  its  object 
the  securing  of  telephone  service  (which  is  al- 
ready contributing  much  to  country  life  and  is 
capable  of  contributing  much  more),  the  ex- 
tension of  electric  lines,  the  improvement  of 
highways,  and  other  forms  of  betterment.  Partic- 
ular temporary  needs  of  the  neighborhood  may 
be  met  by  combined  effort,  and  this  may  be 
made  the  beginning  of  a  broader  permanent 
organization. 

A  method  of  cooperative  credit  would  un- 
doubtedly prove  of  great  service.  In  other 
countries  credit  associations  loan  money  to  their 
members  on  easy  terms  and  for  long  enough  time 
to  cover  the  making  of  a  crop,  demanding  se- 
curity not  on  the  property  of  the  borrower,  but 
on  the  moral  warranty  of  his  character  and  in- 
dustry. The  American  farmer  has  needed  money 
less,  perhaps,  than  land-workers  in  some  other 
countries,  but  he  could  be  greatly  benefitted  by 
a  different  system  of  credit,  particularly  where 
the  lien  system  is  still  in  operation.  It  would 
be  the  purpose  of  such  systems,  aside  from  pro- 


136     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE  ' 

viding  loans  on  the  best  terms  and  with  the  ut- 
most freedom  consistent  with  safety,  to  keep  as 
much  as  possible  of  the  money  in  circulation 
in  the  open  country  where  the  values  originate. 
The  present  banking  systems  tend  to  take  the 
money  out  of  the  open  country  and  to  loan  it 
in  town  or  to  town-centered  interests.  We 
suggest  that  the  national  bank  examiners  be 
instructed  to  determine,  for  a  series  of  years, 
what  proportion  of  the  loanable  funds  of  rural 
banks  is  loaned  to  the  farmers  in  their  localities, 
in  order  that  data  may  be  secured  on  this  ques- 
tion. All  unnecessary  drain  from  the  open 
country  should  be  checked,  in  order  that  the 
country  may  be  allowed  and  encouraged  to  de- 
velop itself. 

It  is  essential  that  all  rural  organizations,  both 
social  and  economic,  should  develop  into  some- 
thing like  a  system,  or  at  least  that  all  the  efforts 
be  known  and  studied  by  central  authorities. 
There  should  be,  in  other  words,  a  voluntary 
union  of  associative  effort,  from  the  localities 
to  the  counties,  states,  and  the  nation.  Mani- 
festly, government  in  the  United  States  cannot 
manage  the  work  of  voluntary  rural  organiza- 


RURAL  PROGRAM  137 

tion.  Personal  initiative  and  a  cultivated  co- 
operative spirit  are  the  very  core  of  this  kind  of 
work;  yet  both  state  and  national  government, 
as  suggested,  might  exert  a  powerful  influence 
toward  the  complete  organization  of  rural  affairs. 
Steps  should  be  taken  whereby  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture,  the  state 
departments  of  agriculture,  the  land-grant  col- 
leges and  experiment  stations,  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education,  the  normal  and  other 
schools,  shall  cooperate  in  a  broad  program  for 
aiding  country  life  in  such  a  way  that  each  in- 
stitution may  do  its  appropriate  work  at  the 
same  time  that  it  aids  all  the  others  and  contri- 
butes to  the  general  effort  to  develop  a  new  rural 
social  life. 

10.  THE  COUNTRY  CHURCH. 

This  Commission  has  no  desire  to  give  advice 
to  the  institutions  of  religion  nor  to  attempt 
to  dictate  their  policies.  Yet  any  consideration 
of  the  problem  of  rural  life  that  leaves  out  of 
account  the  function  and  the  possibilities  of 
the  church,  and  of  related  institutions,  would 
be  grossly  inadequate.  This  is  not  only  because 


138     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

in  the  last  analysis  the  country  life  problem  is 
a  moral  problem,  or  that  in  the  best  development 
of  the  individual  the  great  motives  and  results 
are  religious  and  spiritual,  but  because  from  the 
pure  sociological  point  of  view  the  church  is 
fundamentally  a  necessary  institution  in  country 
life.  In  a  peculiar  way  the  church  is  intimately 
related  to  the  agricultural  industry.  The  work 
and  the  life  of  the  farm  are  closely  bound  to- 
gether, and  the  institutions  of  the  country  react 
on  that  life  and  on  one  another  more  intimately 
than  they  do  in  the  city.  This  gives  the  rural 
church  a  position  of  peculiar  difficulty  and  one 
of  unequalled  opportunity.  The  time  has  arrived 
when  the  church  must  take  a  larger  leadership, 
both  as  an  institution  and  through  its  pastors, 
in  the  social  reorganization  of  rural  life. 

The  great  spiritual  needs  of  the  country  com- 
munity just  at  present  are  higher  personal  and 
community  ideals.  Rural  people  need  to  have 
an  aspiration  for  the  highest  possible  develop- 
ment of  the  community.  There  must  be  an 
ambition  on  the  part  of  the  people  themselves 
constantly  to  progress  in  all  of  those  things  that 
make  the  community  life  wholesome,  satisfying, 


COUNTRY  CHURCH  139 

educative  and  complete.  There  must  be  a  de- 
sire to  develop  a  permanent  environment  for 
the  country  boy  and  girl,  of  which  they  will  be- 
come passionately  fond.  As  a  pure  matter  of 
education,  the  countryman  must  learn  to  love 
the  country  and  to  have  an  intellectual  apprecia- 
tion of  it.  More  than  this,  the  spiritual  nature 
of  the  individual  must  be  kept  thoroughly  alive. 
His  personal  ideals  of  conduct  and  ambition  must 
be  cultivated. 

Of  course  the  church  has  an  indispensable 
function  as  a  conservator  of  morals.  But  from 
the  social  point  of  view,  it  is  to  hold  aloft  the 
torch  of  personal  and  community  idealism.  It 
must  be  a  leader  in  the  attempt  to  idealize  coun- 
try life. 

The  country  church  doubtless  faces  special 
difficulties.  As  a  rule  it  is  a  small  field.  The 
country  people  are  conservative.  Ordinarily 
the  financial  support  is  inadequate.  Often  there 
are  too  many  churches  in  a  given  community. 
Sectarian  ideas  divide  unduly  and  unfortunately. 
While  there  are  many  rural  churches  that  are 
effective  agents  in  the  social  evolution  of  their 
communities,  it  is  true  that  as  a  whole  the  coun- 


140     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

try  church  needs  new  direction  and  to  assume 
new  responsibilities.  Few  of  the  churches  in 
the  open  country  are  provided  with  resident 
pastors.  They  are  supplied  mostly  from  the 
neighboring  towns  and  by  a  representative  of 
some  single  denomination.  Sometimes  the  pul- 
pit is  supplied  by  pastors  of  different  denomina- 
tions in  turn.  Without  a  resident  minister  the 
church  work  is  likely  to  be  confined  chiefly  to 
services  once  a  week.  In  many  regions  there 
is  little  personal  visitation  except  in  cases  of 
sickness,  death,  marriage,  christening  or  other 
special  circumstance.  The  Sunday  School  is 
sometimes  continued  only  during  the  months 
of  settled  weather.  There  are  young  people's 
organizations  to  some  extent,  but  they  are  often 
inactive  or  irregular.  The  social  activity  of 
the  real  country  church  is  likely  to  be  limited 
to  the  short  informal  meetings  before  and  after 
services  and  to  suppers  that  are  held  for  the 
purpose  of  raising  funds.  Most  of  the  gather- 
ings are  designed  for  the  church  people  them- 
selves rather  than  for  the  community.  The 
range  of  social  influence  is  therefore  generally 
restricted  to  the  families  particularly  related 


COUNTRY  CHURCH  141 

to  the  special  church  organization,  and  there 
is  likely  to  be  no  sense  of  social  responsibility 
for  the  entire  community. 

In  the  rural  villages  there  are  generally  several 
or  a  number  of  churches  of  different  denomina- 
tions, one  or  more  of  which  are  likely  to  be  weak. 
The  salaries  range  from  $400  to  $1,000.  Among 
Protestants  there  is  considerable  denominational 
competition  and  consequent  jealousy  or  even 
conflict.  United  effort  for  cooperative  activity 
is  likely  to  be  perfunctory  rather  than  sympa- 
thetic and  vital.  The  pastor  is  often  overloaded 
with  station  work  in  neighboring  communities. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  Commission  to 
discuss  the  difficulties  of  the  rural  church  at  this 
time  nor  to  present  a  solution  for  them,  but,  in 
the  interests  of  rural  betterment,  it  seems  proper 
to  indicate  a  few  considerations  that  seem  to  be 
fundamental. 

(1)  In  New  England  and  in  some  other  parts 
of  the  North,  the  tremendous  drawback  of 
denominational  rivalry  is  fairly  well  recognized 
and  active  measures  for  church  federation  are 
well  under  way.  This  does  not  mean  organic 
union.  It  means  cooperation  for  the  purpose  of 


142     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

trying  to  reach  and  influence  every  individual  in 
the  community.  It  means  that  "  some  church  is 
to  be  responsible  for  every  square  mile."  When 
a  community  is  over-churched,  it  means  giving 
up  the  superfluous  church  or  churches.  When  a 
church  is  needed,  it  means  a  friendly  agreement 
on  the  particular  church  to  be  placed  there. 
This  movement  for  federation  is  one  of  the  most 
promising  in  the  whole  religious  field,  because  it 
does  not  attempt  to  break  down  donominational 
influence  or  standards  of  thought.  It  puts 
emphasis,  not  on  the  church  itself,  but  on  the 
work  to  be  done  by  the  church  for  all  men, 
churched  and  unchurched.  It  is  possible  that  all 
parts  of  the  country  are  not  quite  ready  for 
federation,  although  a  national  church  federation 
movement  is  under  way.  But  it  hardly  seems 
necessary  to  urge  that  the  spirit  of  cooperation 
among  churches,  the  diminution  of  sectarian 
strife,  the  attempt  to  reach  the  entire  community, 
must  become  the  guiding  principles  everywhere 
if  the  rural  church  is  long  to  retain  its  hold. 

(1)  The  rural  church  must  be  more  completely 
than  now  a  social  center.  This  means  not  so 
much  a  place  for  holding  social  gatherings, 


COUNTRY  CHURCH  143 

although  this  is  legitimate  and  desirable,  but  a 
place  whence  constantly  emanates  influences  that 
go  to  build  up  the  moral  and  spiritual  tone  of  the 
whole  community.  The  country  church  of  the 
future  is  to  be  held  responsible  for  the  great 
ideals  of  community  life  as  well  as  of  personal 
character. 

(2)  There  should  be  a  large  extension  of  the 
work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
into  the  rural  communities.    There  is  apparently 
no  other  way  to  grip  the  hearts  and  lives  of  the 
boys  and  young  men  of  the  average  country 
neighborhood.      This    association    must    regard 
itself  as  an  ally  of  the  church,  with  a  special 
function  and  a  special  field. 

(3)  We  must  have  a  complete  conception  of 
the  country  pastorate.    The  country  pastor  must 
be  a  community  leader.    He  must  know  the  rural 
problems.    He  must  have  sympathy  writh  rural 
ideals  and  aspirations.    He  must  love  the  country. 
He  must  know  country  life,  the  difficulties  that 
the  farmer  has  to  face  in  his  business,  some  of  the 
great  scientific   revelations  made   in   behalf  of 
agriculture,  the  great  industrial  forces  at  work 
for  the  making  or  the  unmaking  of  the  farmer, 


144     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

the  fundamental  social  problems  of  the  life  of 
the  open  country. 

Consequently,  the  rural  pastor  must  have 
special  training  for  his  work.  Ministerial  col- 
leges and  theological  seminaries  should  unite 
with  agricultural  colleges  in  this  preparation  of 
the  country  clergyman.  There  should  be  better 
financial  support  for  the  clergyman;  in  many 
country  districts  it  is  pitiably  small.  There  is 
little  incentive  for  a  man  to  stay  in  a  country 
parish,  and  yet  this  residence  is  just  what  must 
come  about.  Perhaps  it  will  require  an  appeal 
to  the  heroic  young  men,  but  we  must  have  more 
men  going  into  the  country  pastorates  not  as  a 
means  of  getting  a  foothold  but  as  a  permanent 
work.  The  clergyman  has  an  excellent  chance  for 
leadership  in  the  country.  In  some  sections  he  is 
still  the  dominating  personality.  But  everywhere 
he  may  become  one  of  the  great  community 
leaders.  He  is  the  key  to  the  country  church 
problem. 

11.  PERSONAL  IDEALS  AND  LOCAL  LEADERSHIP. 

Everything  resolves  itself  at  the  end  into  a 
question  of  personality.    Society,  or  government, 


PERSONAL  IDEALS  145 

cannot  do  much  for  country  life  unless  there  is 
voluntary  response  in  the  personal  ideals  of  those 
who  live  in  the  country.  Inquiries  by  the  Com- 
mission, for  example,  find  that  one  reason  for 
the  shift  from  the  country  to  town  is  the  lack  of 
ideals  in  many  country  homes  and  even  the 
desire  of  the  countryman  and  his  wife  that  the 
children  do  not  remain  on  the  farm.  The  obliga- 
tion to  keep  as  many  youths  on  the  farms  as  are 
needed  there,  rests  on  the  home  more  than  on 
the  school  or  on  society. 

It  is  often  said  that  better  rural  institutions 
and  more  attractive  homes  and  yards  will  neces- 
sarily follow  an  increase  in  profitableness  of 
farming;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  high  ideals  may 
be  quite  independent  of  income,  although  they 
cannot  be  realized  without  sufficient  income  to 
provide  good  support.  Many  of  the  most  thrifty 
farmers  are  the  least  concerned  about  the  char- 
acter of  the  home  and  school  and  church.  One 
often  finds  the  most  attractive  and  useful  farm 
homes  in  the  difficult  farming  regions.  On  the 
other  hand,  some  of  the  most  prosperous  agricul- 
tural regions  possess  most  unattractive  farm 
premises  and  school  buildings.  Many  persons 

10 


146     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

who  complain  most  loudly  about  their  incomes 
are  the  last  to  improve  their  home  conditions 
when  their  incomes  are  increased;  they  are  more 
likely  to  purchase  additional  land  and  thereby 
further  emphasize  the  barrenness  of  home  life. 
Land-hunger  is  naturally  strongest  in  the  most 
prosperous  regions. 

When  an  entire  region  or  industry  is  not 
financially  prosperous,  it  is  impossible,  of  course, 
to  develop  the  best  personal  and  community 
ideals.  In  the  cotton-growing  states,  for  example, 
the  greatest  social  and  mental  development  has 
been  apparent  in  the  years  of  high  prices  for 
cotton;  and  the  same  is  true  in  exclusive  wheat 
regions,  hay  regions,  and  other  large  areas 
devoted  mainly  to  one  industry. 

While  it  is  of  course  necessary  that  the  farmer 
receive  good  remuneration  for  his  efforts,  it  is 
nevertheless  true  that  the  money  consideration 
is  frequently  too  exclusively  emphasized  in  farm 
homes.  This  consideration  often  obscures  every 
other  interest,  allowing  little  opportunity  for  the 
development  of  the  intellectual,  social  and  moral 
qualities.  The  open  country  abounds  in  men  and 
women  of  the  finest  ideals;  yet  it  is  necessary  to 


PERSONAL  IDEALS  147 

say  that  other  ends  in  life  than  the  making  of 
more  money  and  the  getting  of  more  goods  are 
much  needed  in  country  districts;  and  that  this, 
more  than  anything  else,  will  correct  the  un- 
satisfying nature  of  rural  life. 

Teachers  of  agriculture  have  placed  too  much 
relative  emphasis  on  the  remuneration  and  pro- 
duction sides  of  country  life.  Money-hunger 
is  as  strong  in  the  open  country  as  elsewhere,  and 
as  there  are  fewer  opportunities  and  demands  for 
the  expenditure  of  this  money  for  others  and  for 
society,  there  often  develops  a  hoarding  and  a 
lack  of  public  spirit  that  is  disastrous  to  the 
general  good.  So  completely  does  the  money- 
purpose  often  control  the  motive,  that  other 
purposes  in  farming  remain  dormant.  The  com- 
placent contentment  in  many  rural  neighbor- 
hoods is  itself  the  very  evidence  of  social  incapa- 
city or  decay. 

It  must  not  be  assumed  that  these  deficiencies 
are  to  be  charged  as  a  fault  against  the  farmer 
as  a  group.  They  are  rather  to  be  looked  on  as 
evidence  of  an  uncorrelated  and  unadjusted 
society.  Society  is  itself  largely  to  blame.  The 
social  structure  has  been  unequally  developed. 


148     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

The  townsman  is  likely  to  assume  superiority 
and  to  develop  the  town  in  disregard  of  the  real 
interests  of  the  open  country  or  even  in  opposi- 
tion to  them.  The  city  exploits  the  country;  the 
country  does  not  exploit  the  city.  The  press 
still  delights  in  archaic  cartoons  of  the  farmer. 
There  is  as  much  need  of  a  new  attitude  on  the 
part  of  the  townsman  as  on  the  part  of  the  farmer. 
This  leads  us  to  say  that  the  country  ideals, 
while  derived  largely  from  the  country  itself, 
should  not  be  exclusive;  and  the  same  applies 
to  city  and  village  ideals.  There  should  be  more 
frequent  social  intercourse  on  equal  terms  be- 
tween the  people  of  the  country  and  those  of  the 
city  or  village.  This  community  of  interests  is 
being  accomplished  to  a  degree  at  present,  but 
there  is  hardly  yet  the  knowledge  and  sympathy 
and  actual  social  life  that  there  should  be  between 
those  who  live  on  the  land  and  those  who  do  not. 
The  business  men's  organizations  of  cities  could 
well  take  the  lead  in  some  of  this  work.  The 
country  town  in  particular  has  similar  interests 
with  the  open  country  about  it ;  but  beyond  this, 
all  people  are  bettered  and  broadened  by  associa- 
tion with  those  of  far  different  environment. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  LEADERSHIP         149 


We  have  now  discussed  some  of  the  forces  and 
agencies  that  will  aid  in  bringing  about  a  new 
rural  society.  The  development  of  the  best 
country  life  in  the  United  States  is  seen,  there- 
fore, to  be  largely  a  question  of  guidance.  The 
exercise  of  a  wise  advice,  stimulus,  and  direction 
from  some  central  national  agency,  extending 
over  a  series  of  years,  could  accomplish  untold 
good,  not  only  for  the  open  country,  but  for  all 
the  people  and  for  our  institutions. 

In  the  communities  themselves,  the  same  kind 
of  guidance  is  needed,  operating  in  good  farming, 
in  schools,  churches,  societies,  and  all  useful 
public  work.  The  great  need  everywhere  is  new 
and  young  leadership,  and  the  Commission  desires 
to  make  an  appeal  to  all  young  men  and  women 
who  love  the  open  country  to  consider  this  field 
when  determining  their  careers.  We  need  young 
people  of  quality,  energy,  capacity,  aspiration 
and  conviction,  who  will  live  in  the  open  country 
as  permanent  residents  on  farms,  or  as  teachers, 


150     COMMISSION  ON  COUNTRY  LIFE 

or  in  other  useful  fields,  and  who,  while  develop- 
ing their  own  business  or  affairs  to  the  greatest 
perfection,  will  still  have  unselfish  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  their  communities.  The  farming 
country  is  by  no  means  devoid  of  leaders,  and  is 
not  lost  or  incapable  of  helping  itself,  but  it  has 
been  relatively  overlooked  by  persons  who  are 
seeking  great  fields  of  usefulness.  It  will  be  well 
for  us  as  a  people  if  we  recognize  the  opportunity 
for  usefulness  in  the  open  country  and  consider 
that  there  is  a  call  for  service.  , 

L.  H.  BAILEY. 
HENRY  WALLACE. 
KENYON  L.  BUTTERFIELD. 
WALTER  H.  PAGE. 

GlFFORD  PlNCHOT. 

C.  S.  BARRETT. 
W.  A.  BEARD. 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


A     000  476  489     o 


